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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028003121 
 
ART REPRO. CO. 
 
 The Right Hon. GEORGE CANNING, 
 
 From the Portrait in Christ Church, Oxford, 
 By Sir THOs. LAWRENCE, P.R.A. 
 
LIFE OF CANNING 
 
 BY 
 
 H. W. V. TEMPERLEY 
 
 FELLOW OF PETERHOUSE AND LATE ALLEN SCHOLAR AND PRINCE 
 
 CONSORT PRIZEMAN IN CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY — LECTURER 
 
 IN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OP LEEDS 
 
 
 London 
 
 JAMES FINCH & CO., Ltd 
 
 33 Paternoster Row, E.C 
 
 1905 
 

CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 I. BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION 17 
 
 II. THE BEGINNING OF A GREAT PARLIAMENTARY CAREER 27 
 
 III. JACOBIN AND ANTI-JACOBIN 38 
 
 IV. THE PUPIL OF PITT IN AND OUT OF OFFICE (1797- 
 
 1807) 54 
 
 V. CANNING AND NAPOLEON (1807-9) 7° 
 
 VI. canning's POLITICAL CREED - 94 
 
 VII. THE TIME OF TRIAL (181O-22) Toq" 
 
 VIII. CASTLEREAGH, CANNING, AND THE HOLY ALLIANCE lJ 
 
 (1815-1822) 127 
 IX. THE CONGRESS OF VERONA AND THE INVASION OF 
 
 SPAIN (1822-3) 152 
 
 X. CANNING AND THE NEW WORLD I_ja_ 
 XI. THE COLONIES AND THE SLAVE TRADE. BRAZIL AND 
 
 "PORTUGAL 192 
 
 XII. THE FREEDOM OF GREECE (182I-7) 205 
 
 XIII. THE STRUGGLE FOR THE PREMIERSHIP AND THE END 
 
 (FEBRUARY TO AUGUST l8th, 1827), 224 
 
 XIV. CHARACTERISTICS 240 
 XV. THE LEGACY OF CANNING 267 
 
 INDEX 281 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PORTRAIT OF GEORGE CANNING (AT CHRISTCHURCH, 
 
 oxford) - Frontispiece. 
 
 GILLRAY'S caricature of THE DANISH EXPEDITION- tO foce p. 77 
 PORTRAIT OF GEORGE CANNING (NATIONAL PORTRAIT 
 
 gallery) to face p. 154. 
 
 MAP OF CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA at end. 
 
LIFE OF CANNING 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Some great men have had to endure the misfortune of 
 attaining too complete success. Bentham's great reforms in 
 the criminal law are so perfected and achieved that his name 
 and influence are in danger of being forgotten. Adam Smith 
 _^_ ^_j^^,,i^„ j_i„„.^j.u„ _i-ir_ii--_.._^ ..-,.•_ wealth 
 
 CORRIGENDA. "t im- 
 
 mning. 
 
 Page 74, line 3 :— The passage beginning " Intelhgence .j^^ gQ_ 
 
 reached me" is quoted from Dr. Rose's 'Napoleonic Studies. [^ ^j^^^. 
 
 Page 92, note t : - For " Dr. Rose seems to omit this in his affairs. 
 
 calculations " read " Dr. Rose seems to omit the full force of this has so 
 
 in his calculations. ' s who 
 
 rornraiaiea rnem. r<rDT5ne now rrners tnat the^Trieeting of the 
 
 Czar and the Kaiser will result in a combination against the 
 liberties of the world, no one imagines the Hague Conference 
 will turn into a union of governments against peoples. Many 
 of the difficulties with which Canning contended are now 
 unthinkable, and some of his principles have descended from 
 novelty to platitude. But even so, great honour should be 
 paid to their earliest upholder, to the man who first foresaw 
 and promoted the growth of national liberty on the Continent 
 of Europe, when a league of despots had a real existence and 
 when freedom of opinion was more an ideal than a fact. 
 Apart from its international character the policy of Canning 
 abounds in lessons for the England of to-day. His views on 
 the Eastern question, on the relations between the Old World 
 and the New, on the commercial supremacy and political 
 
 I 
 
lO Life of Canning 
 
 influence of England have lost neither their truth nor their 
 interest. Disraeli may have seen the future but his 
 Roumelian policy is already of the past, Chatham was mar- 
 vellously successful for the moment but his gratuitous 
 humiliations of France were the cause of future disasters. 
 For Canning alone among English statesmen can we make 
 the double claim that his own work has been permanent and 
 indestructible, whilst his visions of the future have in some 
 measure approached to reality. This it is which throws over 
 the details of his policy something more than the charm and 
 the mystery of the past. The principles which he laid down, 
 though their application may now be different, should still be 
 the guide and polar star of our course. 
 
 Within the last few years England has been pledged to an 
 alliance with one power, and has signed a treaty settling all 
 outstanding difficulties with another. Our alliance has already 
 made a war possible in Asia whilst it would be idle to deny 
 that our settlement with France does not imply some change 
 of our policy in Europe. There is here no desire to censure, 
 no attempt even to criticize either of these momentous steps. 
 It is enough to say that before each was taken there was no 
 definite or even perhaps perceptible impulse from the people, 
 who are yet supposed to direct all government. Lack of 
 interest in foreign policy, except in the broadest outline, is a 
 feature of Englishmen to-day. Perhaps this is the reason why 
 the man whom Lord Acton termed our greatest foreign 
 minister has waited so long for his biographer. Mr. A. G. 
 Stapleton, his private secretary, indeed published two laborious 
 works in his defence — " The Political Life of Canning," and 
 the " Life and Times of George Canning." The former is a 
 successful but tedious defence of his later foreign policy, but 
 more of the nature of a polemic than a history. The latter is 
 a collection of letters and memoranda linked together by a 
 most discursive and heavy commentary, golden beads indeed, 
 but strung on the most tawdry and commonplace of threads. 
 Stapleton knew little of Canning's life before 1815, and made 
 no attempt to trace the connection between his earlier and 
 later policies, whilst his argumentative and apologetic attitude 
 did not admit of critical conclusions, broad views, or final 
 estimates. 
 
 There must be added to the works of Stapleton "The 
 Memoirs of George Canning," a bookseller's venture, con- 
 sisting chiefly of press-cuttings, (1828) and "The Life" by L. 
 T. Rede, which is anecdotal and untrustworthy. Bell was the 
 
Introduction 
 
 1 1 
 
 first writer except Stapleton, who could pretend to any 
 accuracy, and his work has been supplemented and corrected 
 in the bright and vigorous sketch of Mr. Frank H. Hill (1888). 
 Neither of these writers made any serious eiifort to treat the 
 foreign policy, dealing almost exclusively with the social and 
 personal side of Canning's character. Even upon this sub- 
 ject a good deal of new matter has since been made known. 
 Of late there have been published two short lives of Canning 
 by Mr. J. A. R. Marriott and Mr. W. Alison-Phillips, but 
 neither of these is written from any but printed sources or 
 adds substantially to our knowledge of the period or the man. 
 Three-quarters of a century should be suiificient to reveal 
 the true proportions of a statesman, and to enable us to weigh 
 and balance the good and evil, the failure or success of his 
 policy. Canning has waited long enough for a biographer, and 
 to delay longer in the hope that fresh materials will be found 
 is as though Columbus were to put off crossing the Atlantic 
 until steam had been invented. Our chart, unlike that of the 
 great explorer, should be ample and accurate. It should be 
 now possible to check the vast mass of statements in the 
 memoirs, lives and histories of the time, by the closest com- 
 parison with the original materials, and to reconstruct the 
 broad outlines of his policy and character. That policy I 
 believe to have been often misint-erpreted, that character often 
 misunderstood. If a final judgment is impossible, we should 
 at least be able to give an estimate approximating to finality. 
 Research has convinced me that the old and oft-disputed 
 questions are capable if not of settlement, at least of an 
 instructive re-statement. Lately published works as well as 
 the records help us to understand Canning's change of opinion 
 in 1792, his difference with Pitt and Addington, his resignation 
 in 1809 and his acceptance of office in 18 16. The famous 
 Danish expedition of 1807 has already been criticized anew, 
 though not with full and complete knowledge. The Record 
 Office provides despatches in 1 807-9, which remarkably fore- 
 shadow the later policy from 1822-7. Further, they afford 
 such evidence of the exact relations between Castlereagh and 
 Canning from 1818-22 as to make that question (which after 
 all is in many ways the central and vital point of Canning's 
 policy) no longer capable of doubt. They show that the 
 advocates of both ministers have assumed untenable positions. 
 If Canning did not completely change a policy in 1822 there 
 is equal evidence that Castlereagh did not devise one in 1818 
 without much assistance from Canning. 
 
12 Life of Canning 
 
 In general the time seems at last to have arrived for 
 estimating and criticizing Canning's policy in its immediate 
 and ultimate results, in its details as well as in its principles, 
 in all its breadth and depth and extent. The absence of any- 
 modern work has sometimes compelled lengthier notes and a 
 somewhat fuller treatment and discussion than is suitable for 
 a narrative. But there is no paragraph to which a string of 
 authorities could not have been attached or a lengthier 
 treatment given. I have attempted, as Canning himself would 
 say, " by absolute neutrality to hold the balance between the 
 two conflicting principles" of eulogy and depreciation. 
 Especially have I endeavoured to avoid the familiar disease 
 of the biographer, which places scales on his eyes and induces 
 him to believe his hero the sole life and source of the age. 
 If the life of the man is impressed on the times, the life of 
 the times yet influences the character of the man. Thus it 
 must be admitted that Canning was sometimes the mere 
 representative of his epoch, that in some respects he was be- 
 hind the best thought of the age, just as in others he was before 
 it. The relations of condition and environment, the influence 
 of the deep impersonal elements of history, the self-moving 
 power of ideas and of forces, all these must be studied before 
 we can appreciate the influence of human personality. In the 
 study of personal character — especially a character so complex 
 and subtle as that of Canning — sympathy is as essential to 
 the understanding as impartiality is necessary to the judg- 
 ment. To be able to praise every virtue need not prevent us 
 from censuring every fault. The great man is not less of a 
 divinity because his follies and weaknesses are revealed, he is 
 only more human and therefore more easy to understand. 
 There may be some to question the justice of this historical 
 canon, there will undoubtedly be many to criticize its applica- 
 tion in the present instance. Without the slightest wish to 
 deprecate censure it is possible to point out that the work 
 here undertaken is new, as no biography of Canning yet 
 exists, that the extent of the materials is almost infinite, and 
 that they abound in slanders and mis-statements. In opening 
 this Pandora's box of evil passions Hope may indeed be 
 found at the bottom but Truth is buried at a deeper level still. 
 
 The manuscript and original sources used are several. 
 First, there are the drafts of Canning's official despatches in 
 the Record Oiifice, which are a full, final and authoritative 
 exposition of policy. They have been freely used and are 
 frequently quoted in the text. There are also Castlereagh's 
 
Introduction 1 3 
 
 despatches — from 18 18 onwards — of which the secret and 
 supplementary despatches to Stewart are of immense value 
 and importance as exhibiting the real tendencies of his mind 
 and policy. The British Museum has about twenty original 
 letters of Canning which throw light on some obscure points 
 of his life and especially on his work at the Board of Control. 
 More valuable than these last are the papers and correspond- 
 ence of Sir Robert Wilson, who was acquainted with the 
 chief Liberal leaders of the English Opposition and was also 
 a friend and confidant of Canning.* Wilson was personally 
 known to the Czar Alexander and many of the foreign 
 diplomats, and yet also corresponded with the leading thinkers 
 and revolutionists of Europe from Dumouriez and Stein to 
 Bolivar and Ivernois. The chequered character of his career 
 may be gathered from the fact that he was at one time 
 official commander-in-chief in Portugal, at another a mere 
 soldier of fortune, whilst in diplomacy he was by turns an 
 English ambassador, an agent, a spy and something very 
 like a conspirator. It is certain that no private individual 
 of the age knew more of the secret history of Europe. His 
 letters also throw much light upon the formation of Canning's 
 ministry in 1827. In general, these original and authoritative 
 sources of information for the first time enable a fairly adequate 
 estimate to be made of Canning's work and character. This 
 may indeed be corrected in detail from foreign archives and 
 from private and as yet unpublished letters, but the evidence 
 is comparatively complete and at least sufficient to remove 
 some of the vast accretion of tradition and calumny, which has 
 accumulated round the names of Castlereagh and Canning. 
 
 Of printed sources, consisting chiefly of documents and 
 dealing primarily with the policy and not the life of Canning, 
 there are not as many as could be desired. The first 
 authorities for the whole period are Canning's letters and 
 memoranda in A. G. Stapleton's two works, his speeches, and 
 that part of his correspondence published by E. J. Stapleton. 
 On his first tenure at the Foreign Office — besides MSS. 
 sources — almost the only authority is the very valuable 
 " Diary of Sir John Moore," the commentary on which is 
 occasionally somewhat prejudiced. There are some valuable 
 articles in the " English Historical Review " by Dr. Rose, 
 who has been the first English writer to appreciate the 
 
 * His private journal has been published but only reaches to 1814. His 
 pamphlet on the negotiations of 1827 is interesting but the unpublished 
 correspondence is more explicit. 
 
12 Life of Canning 
 
 In general the time seems at last to have arrived for 
 estimating and criticizing Canning's policy in its immediate 
 and ultimate results, in its details as well as in its principles, 
 in all its breadth and depth and extent. The absence of any- 
 modern work has sometimes compelled lengthier notes and a 
 somewhat fuller treatment and discussion than is suitable for 
 a narrative. But there is no paragraph to which a string of 
 authorities could not have been attached or a lengthier 
 treatment given. I have attempted, as Canning himself would 
 say, " by absolute neutrality to hold the balance between the 
 two conflicting principles" of eulogy and depreciation. 
 Especially have I endeavoured to avoid the familiar disease 
 of the biographer, which places scales on his eyes and induces 
 him to believe his hero the sole life and source of the age. 
 If the life of the man is impressed on the times, the life of 
 the times yet influences the character of the man. Thus it 
 must be admitted that Canning was sometimes the mere 
 representative of his epoch, that in some respects he was be- 
 hind the best thought of the age, just as in others he was before 
 it. The relations of condition and environment, the influence 
 of the deep impersonal elements of history, the self-moving 
 power of ideas and of forces, all these must be studied before 
 we can appreciate the influence of human personality. In the 
 study of personal character — especially a character so complex 
 and subtle as that of Canning — sympathy is as essential to 
 the understanding as impartiality is necessary to the judg- 
 ment. To be able to praise every virtue need not prevent us 
 from censuring every fault. The great man is not less of a 
 divinity because his follies and weaknesses are revealed, he is 
 only more human and therefore more easy to understand. 
 There may be some to question the justice of this historical 
 canon, there will undoubtedly be many to criticize its applica- 
 tion in the present instance. Without the slightest wish to 
 deprecate censure it is possible to point out that the work 
 here undertaken is new, as no biography of Canning yet 
 exists, that the extent of the materials is almost infinite, and 
 that they abound in slanders and mis-statements. In opening 
 this Pandora's box of evil passions Hope may indeed be 
 found at the bottom but Truth is buried at a deeper level still. 
 
 The manuscript and original sources used are several. 
 First, there are the drafts of Canning's official despatches in 
 the Record Office, which are a full, final and authoritative 
 exposition of policy. They have been freely used and are 
 frequently quoted in the text. There are also Castlereagh's 
 
Introduction 1 3 
 
 despatches — from 18 18 onwards — of which the secret and 
 supplementary despatches to Stewart are of immense value 
 and importance as exhibiting the real tendencies of his mind 
 and policy. The British Museum has about twenty original 
 letters of Canning which throw light on some obscure points 
 of his life and especially on his work at the Board of Control. 
 More valuable than these last are the papers and correspond- 
 ence of Sir Robert Wilson, who was acquainted with the 
 chief Liberal leaders of the English Opposition and was also 
 a friend and confidant of Canning.* Wilson was personally 
 known to the Czar Alexander and many of the foreign 
 diplomats, and yet also corresponded with the leading thinkers 
 and revolutionists of Europe from Dumouriez and Stein to 
 Bolivar and Ivernois. The chequered character of his career 
 may be gathered from the fact that he was at one time 
 official commander-in-chief in Portugal, at another a mere 
 soldier of fortune, whilst in diplomacy he was by turns an 
 English ambassador, an agent, a spy and something very 
 like a conspirator. It is certain that no private individual 
 of the age knew more of the secret history of Europe. His 
 letters also throw much light upon the formation of Canning's 
 ministry in 1827. In general, these original and authoritative 
 sources of information for the first time enable a fairly adequate 
 estimate to be made of Canning's work and character. This 
 may indeed be corrected in detail from foreign archives and 
 from private and as yet unpublished letters, but the evidence 
 is comparatively complete and at least sufficient to remove 
 some of the vast accretion of tradition and calumny, which has 
 accumulated round the names of Castlereagh and Canning. 
 
 Of printed sources, consisting chiefly of documents and 
 dealing primarily with the policy and not the life of Canning, 
 there are not as many as could be desired. The first 
 authorities for the whole period are Canning's letters and 
 memoranda in A. G. Stapleton's two works, his speeches, and 
 that part of his correspondence published by E. J. Stapleton. 
 On his first tenure at the Foreign Ofifice — besides MSS. 
 sources — almost the only authority is the very valuable 
 " Diary of Sir John Moore," the commentary on which is 
 occasionally somewhat prejudiced. There are some valuable 
 articles in the " English Historical Review " by Dr. Rose, 
 who has been the first English writer to appreciate the 
 
 * His private journal has been published but only reaches to 1814. His 
 pamphlet on the negotiations of 1827 is interesting but the unpublished 
 correspondence is more explicit. 
 
14 Life of Canning 
 
 Napoleonic struggle in the light of modern research. But 
 with his special views on Canning's Danish expedition and 
 Napoleon's commercial policy, after a careful study of 
 documents, I have found myself sometimes unable to agree. 
 For the years 1816-22 Castlereagh's published Despatches 
 are, by reason of their large omissions, often most misleading 
 and deceptive. Wellington's* despatches cover the whole 
 period, but the picture they give is very far from complete, 
 and needs to be filled in and corrected from original and 
 other sources. On the policy towards the New World, Mr. 
 Reddaway's " Monroe Doctrine " is full of extracts from MSS 
 sources and accurate, useful and valuable, but it deals almost 
 exclusively with the policy of the United States. The Diaries 
 of Rush and Adams and the letters of Stratford Canning are 
 also useful. For Canning's dealings with Spain, France, Portu- 
 gal and Brazil, there is almost nothing but the somewhat scat- 
 tered notices in Wellington's despatches, and Lady Canning's 
 very valuable but too brief pamphlet upon Portugal. The 
 Eastern Policy is well dealt with in Poole's admirable Life ot 
 Stratford Canning, but the point of view is always that of 
 Constantinople not of London. There are, however, some 
 highly interesting extracts from Stratford's diary and 
 memoirs, and some priceless letters from George Canning. 
 Of foreign authorities Metternich's Memoirs, the Correspond- 
 ence of Gentz and the Letters of Princess Lieven are all 
 interesting and important. Chateaubriand has described the 
 events of 1822-4 i" the Congres de V6rone with comparative 
 truth and superlative eloquence, accompanied by a positive 
 display of documents. Of the more f general histories based 
 upon manuscript sources there are only two of any value in 
 English — Fyffe's Modern Europe and Dorman's History of 
 the British Empire. Fyffe was the first Englishman to 
 appreciate the connection between Castlereagh and Canning, 
 but his work, though admirable in many respects, is somewhat 
 prejudiced and contains some extraordinary mis-statements 
 about Canning. Dorman does not go beyond 1825 and 
 misunderstands Canning's Danish policy, though adding 
 something to our knowledge of the years 1818-25. Of the 
 
 * The documents published therein are often those which had passed 
 the Cabinet-mill ; hence the unrevised drafts in the Record Office, 
 have an interest which they sometimes lack. 
 
 t Spencer Walpole bases his History of England only upon printed 
 documents and, though valuable for his general survey, is far too unfair 
 to Castlereagh, whilst he insists upon regarding Canning with too 
 emotional an eye. 
 
Introduction 1 5 
 
 foreign historians, Sorel, whose authority is unsurpassed, has 
 not come far enough, whilst Seignobos affords no more than 
 a useful outline. The rest are either somewhat antiquated or 
 deal only with portions of the period. Of the latter class far 
 the most valuable is Albert Vandal's " Napoleon et Alexandre 
 Ire, though his sources like his views are exclusively French. 
 Of works dealing with more personal and biographical 
 details, after Stapleton's various works " Hookham Frere and 
 his Friends," lately published by Miss Gabrielle Festing, 
 contains much valuable material, especially in confidential 
 letters from Canning to Frere. I believe this work has been 
 used by no previous biographer. Bartle Frere's Memoir — 
 prefixed to the collected works of Hookham Frere — contains 
 some interesting matter, and is useful in assigning the author- 
 ship of pieces in the " Anti-Jacobin." J. F. Newton's 
 pamphlet, " The early days of George Canning," and Stratford 
 de Redcliffe's " Recollections of Canning " in the " Nineteenth 
 Century " (Jan. 1880), have some curious details from abso- 
 lutely authentic sources. The Memoirs of Lord Malmesbury 
 and R. P. Ward describe the early career of Canning, but 
 both are apt to be untrustworthy and need to be carefully 
 checked. Every memoir of the time from the numerous lives 
 and recollections of Sheridan and Wilberforce to Greville's 
 scandal and Brougham's abuse, yields a store of anecdote 
 gossip and calumny about Canning which requires sifting 
 and winnowing. The most valuable besides those already 
 mentioned are the works of Lords Ashbourne and Rosebery 
 upon Pitt, Tom Moore's Diary, Spencer Walpole's " Perceval " 
 and Lockhart's " Life of Scott," the Duke of Buckingham's 
 " Memoirs of the Courts and Cabinets of George III. and IV." 
 Yonge's " Life of Lord Liverpool," Sir Herbert Maxwell's 
 " Wellington," and the Croker and Creevey papers. The last 
 named give a valuable insight into the workings of the 
 Opposition of the day and have many curious details, ex- 
 pressed in language of uncompromising vigour. But in 
 general Creevey was ill-formed and malicious with regard to 
 Canning himself, though he makes us feel the spirit which 
 animated his opponents. The essays of Hazlitt, Brougham, 
 Mackintosh and Adams, the endless squibs of Moore, a 
 particularly imaginary conversation by Landor, and Sydney 
 Smith's letters of Peter Plymley are valuable estimates by 
 contemporaries of insight and ability. Pamphlets, poems, 
 broadsides and press-articles innumerable show the throb of 
 contemporary thought and feeling. 
 
1 6 Life of Canning 
 
 I have to thank Mr. Hubert Hall and Mr. A. E. Stamp of 
 the Record Office for most valuable advice and suggestions. 
 Mr. G. G. Russell of King's College, Cambridge, kindly 
 read through a part of the proofs and assisted me with 
 some criticism, whilst I am indebted to my brother — Mr. 
 E. W. P. Temperley — for similar services. Though to 
 these friendly counsellors and critics is due a large part 
 of any merit the book may be thought to have, it must 
 be understood that under no circumstances are they to be 
 held responsible for any blunders or mis-statements which 
 it may contain. 
 
 NOTE ON THE USE OF THE WORDS Liberal and Liberalism. 
 
 They are used in three senses in this work. 
 
 (i) They generally indirate the party of men throughout Europe whose 
 demands were for national independence and representative government. 
 
 (2) They sometimes indicate the progressive and enlightened domestic 
 policy of Pitt, Canning and Huskisson. 
 
 (3) They are sometimes used to distinguish the moderate Whigs led by 
 Earl Grey. 
 
 ABBREVIATIONS IN REFERENCE TO ORIGINAL SOURCES. 
 
 Thus Spain — P.O. 299— indicates volume 299 of the drafts and de- 
 spatches to and from Spain deposited by the Foreign Office at the 
 Record Office. 
 
 B.M. and Ad. MSS. indicate the British Museum and the Additional 
 Manuscripts there preserved. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION 
 
 On April 1 1, 1770, the wife of a certain poor barrister of the 
 Temple gave birth to a child so destined by circumstance and 
 origin to obscurity, that in future several London parishes 
 were to dispute the honour of having been his birthplace. 
 This boy was George Canning, and the year of his birth the 
 first of that ministry, so memorable alike for its tyranny 
 towards America, its servility to the King, and the indescrib- 
 able shame and humiliation associated with the premiership 
 of North. At this crisis was born the statesman who was to 
 inspire England's policy with some of the idealism and to 
 restore to her the proud position, which she had won under the 
 Great Commoner ; and was now so soon to lose by the measures 
 of his unworthy successors. Nor was the loss of fame and 
 Empire less imminent to the country, than were poverty and 
 distress- to the family in which the youthful Canning was 
 nurtured. In after days he wittily described himself as " an 
 Irishman born in London," and his father, generous impro- 
 vident and careless, was as typical an Irishman as ever lived. 
 The imaginative zeal of biographers has traced his pedigree 
 up to the days of Edward II. and credited our hero with 
 ancestors in the shape of a Lord Mayor of London, several 
 Members of Parliament and three Mayors of Bristol. 
 Chatterton, that youngest and most unfortunate of poets, 
 professed to have extracted the Rowley manuscripts from a 
 chest in St. Mary's Church at Bristol belonging to Mr. 
 Canynge, who is accordingly mentioned in these most famous 
 of literary forgeries. But the main seat of the family was at 
 Foxcote in Warwickshire, and while municipal honours were 
 thus sought by some members of the family another branch 
 had transferred itself to Ireland. George Canning the first 
 was one of the English settlers in the Plantation of Ulster, and 
 was granted the Manor of Garvagh in Londonderry. A son 
 
1 8 Life of Canning 
 
 of his perished in the terrible Irish rising of 1641, a grandson 
 was attainted by King James in the Irish Parliament of 1690, 
 and by a strange irony their famous descendant was a 
 passionate champion of Roman Catholic Emancipation. 
 
 The father of the statesman, George Canning the fourth, 
 was the eldest son of Stratford Canning of Garvagh. Stratford 
 seems to have been of a type common to the life of that day 
 and the stage of this, a parent invincible in his prejudices and 
 intolerant of independence in his children. George fell in love 
 with a young lady whom his father disliked and of whom 
 history has no more to relate. He added to his offence by 
 professing an ardent attachment to civil and religious liberty, 
 and his father, thus doubly outraged, disinherited him and 
 sent him to seek his fortune elsewhere with an allowance of a 
 hundred and fifty pounds a year. Drifting to London in 1758, 
 he was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple, became a 
 frequenter of Grub Street, a friend of Churchill, Colman and 
 Whitbread, and a contributor of bad verses to Dodsley's 
 Miscellanies. He engaged in a scurrilous literary duel with 
 Smollett the novelist, and attracted some notice by his violent 
 support of Wilkes, that most audacious of demagogues and 
 professional of patriots, just now at the height of his fame and 
 misfortunes. He abused the Ministry for their taxation of 
 America, declaimed against the tyranny of priests and kings, 
 and boasted of his ancestors, " who fought, who bled, and (let 
 me add) who died," for the cause of " pale liberty, when Popery 
 high her bloody standard bore." It is perhaps hardly surpris- 
 ing that his pen yielded him no income, whilst his opinions 
 were sufficient to preclude his success at the Bar. In return 
 for a discharge of his many bills he therefore consented to 
 break the entail of his estate, which his unrelenting father at 
 once settled on his younger brother. Improvident as ever, he 
 was soon again in debt, and in 1768 added alike to his distress 
 and his happiness by marrying a beautiful and penniless girl 
 of eighteen. As a last resource he set up as a wine-merchant, 
 but again failed and sank into the grave, worn out by care 
 and disappointment, just a year after the birth of his son. 
 He seems to have been a man of generous nature, and in his 
 married life to have been singularly happy despite all his 
 misfortunes. His father, who had not forgiven his first 
 attachment and been still more enraged at his second, now 
 exercised a refinement of cruelty, and not only refused to restore 
 the patrimony to his grandson, but withdrew the miserable 
 pittance of £150 a year from the widow and orphan. 
 
Boyhood and Education 19 
 
 But Mrs. Canning was as full of resource and courage as 
 she was destitute of means. With the view of going upon the 
 stage she secured an introduction to Garrick, who favoured 
 her request. She appeared at Drury Lane and Covent 
 Garden, taking the chief parts in " Jane Shore " and " Perdita 
 and Florizel," the latter being the " Winter's Tale " transformed 
 into a farce and adapted to eighteenth century tastes. But as 
 the chivalry of the spectators, stimulated at first by her youth 
 beauty and sad history, cooled into criticism Mrs. Canning 
 took inferior parts ; and finally appeared on the foreground of 
 stages less famous than those of London, at Bristol, Plymouth 
 and Hull. At some time between 1774-9 she married Mr. 
 Reddish, an actor-manager, famous for his representation of 
 the stage villain, a part to which his private character lent an 
 unnatural realism. The movements of his wife and the young 
 George Canning during the next few years are impossible to 
 trace, for though there is no doubt that she was actually 
 married to Reddish his name was borne by three or four 
 persons at Bristol and elsewhere. Remarking on this, Hannah 
 More, whose piety should have saved her from so execrable a 
 pun, said; " there was a whole bundle of reddishes." Eventu- 
 ally we cannot be surprised that this profligate, who was as 
 lavish with his money as his name, drank himself into imbe- 
 cility and ended his days at York Asylum in 1785. His wife 
 was plunged in deep poverty and therefore resumed her pro- 
 fessional career till she married a third husband in the shape of 
 Mr. Hunn, a silk-mercer of Plymouth. On business failing he 
 borrowed an idea from his wife and ventured to appear on the 
 stage. We are told that Reddish had often been pelted and 
 hissed on account of his personal character at the beginning 
 of a piece, and applauded at its close for his rendering of the 
 part he had assumed. But poor Mr. Hunn was abused, not 
 for his own excellent character, but for that which he repre- 
 sented from the start to the finish of all pieces in which he 
 appeared. His death left his unfortunate wife with two 
 daughters and a son, to support whom she continued for some 
 time on the stage, but eventually settled down in retirement 
 near Bath. These somewhat obscure details are needful both 
 to understand and to refute the malignant personal slanders 
 which appeared in the press at a later date, and which often 
 declared Canning himself to be illegitimate, and invariably 
 proclaimed his mother to be of low birth. In point of fact her 
 pedigree extended to the conquest and included not only early 
 Irish Kings but, what is of more importance, many later 
 
20 Life of Canning 
 
 Irish peers. Moreover in all her sorrows and vicissitudes it 
 had been acknowledged that she was a woman of spotless 
 virtue, strong character, and mental energy, though her 
 theatrical talent was small. It has seldom indeed been 
 recorded in history that the mothers of great men have not 
 been possessed of qualities sufficient to explain, if not to 
 justify, the abnormal talents of their sons. 
 
 The truest witness to her worth is to be found in the deep 
 affection which she inspired in her son, and the history of his 
 devotion to her is the most beautiful and touching episode ol 
 his life. Throughout his career, despite all official or parlia- 
 mentary cares, he wrote to her once a week with unvarying 
 regularity. He often visited her when she was acting and 
 always showed to her the utmost consideration and tenderness. 
 When in the height of his fame, as Foreign Secretary in 1807, 
 he visited her at Winchester, where she had some relations of 
 somewhat humble birth. Towards these Canning behaved 
 with the utmost delicacy and cordiality, showing himself in 
 their company in public places and frankly delighting in their 
 society. In his earlier years he shared with her his small 
 income, and* later provided for her out of his increased means. 
 She lived to see him popular and acclaimed on all sides as 
 the first statesman of the age, dying at the age of eighty in 
 the same year as her son. 
 
 The influence of the hand-to-mouth Bohemian existence of 
 a strolling player so dissolute as Reddish must have been 
 harmful to any boy, and perhaps we may trace to this cause 
 some of the irritability and sensitiveness of Canning's later 
 years. "Of my education," wrote Canning with mingled 
 humour and pathos, " the first circumstance of which I have 
 any recollection are, that I was, at the age of six years 
 employed in learning the rudiments of my mother tongue, 
 spinning cockchafers on corking pins and longing for bread 
 and butter." But the gloom of his prospects was even then 
 equalled by the precocity of his talents, and Moody the actor, 
 a man of kindly disposition, discerned and lamented both. 
 The boy was in his opinion " on the road to the gallows," if 
 he remained much longer exposed to the evil influences and 
 associations of Reddish. Stratford Canning, a younger 
 brother of George Canning the fourth, long settled in the city 
 as a wealthy merchant, had as yet done nothing for the widow 
 
 * The story of his settling a pension on her is a fable, or at least is 
 unconfirmed by the pension list. This did not, however, prevent Peter 
 Pindar from writing libellous verses on the subject. 
 
Boyhood and Education 21 
 
 or son of his brother. Moody interviewed him and made 
 strong representations, wrote to other relations, and finally 
 induced Stratford to take sole charge of the boy (1778). The 
 implacable old grandfather was at length induced, apparently 
 by the entreaties of his wife, to grant, as a small annuity for 
 the maintenance of the boy, the proceeds from the estate of 
 Kilmainham in Kilkenny which were about £200 a year. 
 Thus separated from his parent and from Reddish the boy 
 carried away with him an intense love of acting and a life- 
 long affection for his mother. But far from justifying the 
 gloomy prediction of Moody he soon showed that he was 
 much more likely to encounter the early death so invariably 
 predicted in story books for the model boy. 
 
 His first school was at Hyde Abbey and his first master 
 Dr. Richards, whom he afterwards rewarded with a prebend's 
 stall in the neighbouring Cathedral of Winchester. Many 
 years after this date one of this worthy man's scholars wrote 
 from India, " I am amongst savages it is true, but none so 
 savage as old Richards." But this rod-loving pedagogue was 
 mild and tame to Canning, who even at this early age won 
 fame for his graceful verses. In a humorous fragment of 
 autobiography Canning writes as follows : — " I set out with 
 becoming a professed admirer and would-be imitator of the 
 heroes of the head class, and wearied the good-natured 
 patience of all my friends, relations, intimate acquaintances 
 and visitors during the first six vacations by relating ten times 
 a day with a considerable degree of archness and an infinite 
 quantity of admiration, the tricks of Tomlinson and the 
 wickedness of Wilkins, and how Spriggins kicked the usher's 
 shins under the table and then said it was not he." His 
 holidays he spent with friends or at the house of his uncle 
 where he met Sheridan and Fox, the latter of whom persuaded 
 Stratford to send the boy to Eton. We possess a portrait by 
 Gainsborough of Canning about this date (1782). It repre- 
 sents a very handsome boy in a Vandyck collar and costume, 
 with his black hair flowing over his shoulders, full lips and 
 large dark melting eyes set in an oval face. His expression 
 is for a child full of gravity and much resembles that of his 
 portraits when a young man, in its somewhat wistful 
 melancholy. 
 
 Eton along with other schools of that time suffered from a 
 system limited in range, academic in nature, and enforced in 
 a manner more remarkable lor age than wisdom. The lead- 
 ing principle of education was the superiority of form to 
 
2 2 Life of Canning 
 
 matter, truth in an inelegant form was anathema. Study was 
 often directed not towards the best expression of the best 
 thoughts, but towards the best expression of thoughts often 
 in themselves commonplace. The sense often echoed to the 
 sound, and exquisite finish disguised the frailty of the sub- 
 stance. Frere tells us that when on a country walk with 
 Canning in later years he found that the statesman who could 
 sway the policy of a nation was unaware that the tadpole 
 became a frog. This particular crumb of knowledge may not 
 be essential for the nutriment of a youthful statesman, but in 
 those days the truths of science and mathematics and to a less 
 extent those of politics, ethics, and philosophy, were certainly 
 slighted because incapable of finished or poetic expression. 
 Wellington left Eton to learn a scientific military education 
 at a French school, and Canning was instructed in social and 
 economic truths by Dean Jackson and Pitt, when his school- 
 days had long been ended. Windham was the true type of 
 man produced by the system, an orator of exquisite taste and 
 delicacy, who revelled in classical quotation and allusion and 
 eschewed statistics and false quantities. At Eton, within his 
 strictly limited range, Canning studied hard, became a finished 
 classical scholar, and carried off many prizes. Showing as 
 always great precocity he displayed a middle-aged dislike for 
 boyish amusements. " C. knew Canning well at Eton," notes 
 Wilberforce * in his diary, " he never played at games with the 
 other boys ; quite a man, fond of acting, decent and moral." 
 From other sources we learn that he was always consulted by 
 the other boys in their difficulties, and his advice received with 
 the same reverence as if it had proceeded from Ahitophel or 
 the Sibyl of Cumae. 
 
 In these days Cabinet ministers can be drawn from almost 
 any rank in society. Peel was the son of a cotton-spinner and 
 Cobden had himself been a bagman. But at the time of 
 which we speak the coincidence of extensive acres with 
 moderate abilities and a historic name almost mechanically 
 entitled a peer to the highest positions. The second-hand 
 furniture of eighteenth century Cabinets consisted always in 
 patricians, whose social influence was so great that their 
 political talents could safely be neglected. Of the first of 
 these statements Rockingham, Grafton and Portland are 
 examples, whilst for the second such men as Earl Gower, the 
 Duke of Bedford, Lord John Cavendish and Carmarthen may 
 serve. These circumstances invested the mimic debates with 
 * Wilberforce — Life. V. 139. 
 
Boyhood and Education 23 
 
 an interest more than academic, for it could be predicted with 
 certainty that at any given time Eton would have some future 
 statesman within its walls. Here the youthful orator could 
 trim his plumes, polish his periods, and indicate his future 
 political attitude by crossing swords with his future 
 antagonists. The debating society was a mimic parliament 
 with grave and learned speaker, due registration of votes, 
 ministerial and opposition benches. Here Canning early 
 distinguished himself in company with the future Earl Grey 
 and Hookham Frere. Of their sentiments indeed at this 
 time we know nothing, but Canning was " a horrible Whig " 
 who thundered against Pitt with all the energy of young 
 eloquence. 
 
 But these youthful men of the world were not content with 
 their political labours. They aspired to be social satirists of 
 their miniature globe, and to be the Addisons and the Swifts 
 of the Eton of the day. The journal which they issued for 
 the purpose was known as the " Microcosm," appearing 
 weekly from the ist November, 1788, till the 30th July in the 
 following year. J. Smith was the editor, and the contributors 
 numbered among them Bobus Smith, Charles Ellis, Hookham 
 Frere and our hero. Canning contributed far the largest 
 share of articles to the journal, which excited such consider- 
 able attention that an enterprising bookseller purchased the 
 copyright for fifty pounds and subsequently sold five succes- 
 sive editions, the last appearing in 1825. " The Microcosm," 
 is perhaps hardly as good a production as the " Etonian," 
 when it was edited by Praed and Moultrie but it is in some 
 ways more remarkable. The authors went farther afield than 
 the Etonian modes of life they at first intended to satirise, 
 and criticized in mock Addisonian style the habits of the 
 world at large, with the gravity of men and the knowledge of 
 babes. 
 
 Already the combination of subtle humour with boisterous 
 fun, for which Canning was famous, may be discerned in this 
 journal. He also contributed poems, of which one on the 
 slavery of Greece breathes something more than mere scholarly 
 sympathy. There are several parodies, a classical commentary 
 and criticism on the nursery ballad of the knave of hearts, 
 and some clever essays. Of these perhaps the best is the 
 " Analogy of the Arts of Weaving and Poetry," where a 
 distressed weaver implores poets to "boldly extirpate from 
 their writings every species of foreign manufacture; and 
 adopt in their stead, materials from the prolific looms of their 
 
24 Life of Canning 
 
 countrymen. . . . Will any caviller presume to contend that 
 our looms are not as fertile of poetical imagery as those of 
 our neighbours? Have we not handkerchiefs of printed 
 cotton, crowded with all the beauties of rural scenery and 
 ' azure flowers that blow,' in the carpets of the Wilton manu- 
 factory ? " We can already see something of the sarcasm 
 and wit of his later days, whilst some of his essays display a 
 Ciceronian polish and finished expression and a precocity of 
 judgment truly marvellous in a boy of sixteen. 
 
 His writings added to his fame as a scholar and debater. 
 When Fanny Burney came down to Eton in the train of 
 royalty in 1787 to hear the speeches. Canning and J. Smith 
 were the principal orators and were pointed out as the editors 
 of the " Microcosm." During his last years at Eton, Canning, 
 by reason of his looks and his talents, was the show boy of 
 the place and the magnet of visitors at Montem. He formed 
 some lasting friendships at school, notably with Hookham 
 Frere and Charles Ellis (afterwards Lord Seaforth) and Bobus 
 Smith. The latter is famous as the brother of Sidney Smith, 
 and the protagonist in a bout of fisticuffs at Eton with no less 
 an opponent than the future Iron Duke. Canning always 
 retained his love for Eton which perhaps influenced his belief 
 in the excellence of the educational system of that time. It 
 was there at the Montem of 1823 that he met Brougham, for 
 the first time after a memorable exchange of savage person- 
 alities in the Commons, and that to the infinite delight of the 
 spectators he warmly grasped him by the hand. In the 
 following year he sat in the ten-oar, in the place reserved for 
 the most illustrious visitor, cheering louder than any of the 
 boys as the boats rushed past. The memory of his kindness 
 and condescension during his visits remained with a small 
 Etonian whose verses the great man had praised, all un- 
 conscious that in the distant future the name of Gladstone 
 would rival his own in fame and popularity. " From her," 
 Canning says of Eton in a valedictory passage in the 
 " Microcosm " which might have come from some sentimental 
 greybeard, "to have sucked the milk of Science, to have 
 contracted for her a pious fondness and veneration which 
 will bind me for ever to her interests; and (pardon kind 
 reader the licensed vanity of a periodical writer abandoning 
 himself on his deathbed to the fascination of egotism) perhaps 
 to have improved by my earnest endeavours her younger 
 part of the present generation, is to me a source of infinite 
 pride and satisfaction." 
 
Boyhood and Education 25 
 
 Leaving Eton in 1788, Canning proceeded to Oxford, 
 where a fresh harvest of triumphs awaited his sickle. 
 Newton tells us that he was as studious as ever, being 
 seldom without a book or pen in his hand, whilst he 
 never rode or even hired horses. Celebrated as always 
 for his Latinity he won additional fame at Oxford and 
 carried off the Chancellor's Medal for his verses on the 
 " Iter ad Meccam," which were said to form the best prize- 
 poem ever written. 
 
 If Modern thought has somewhat altered in its opinions as 
 to what knowledge is of most worth, it has revolutionised the 
 old views of the relations between teacher and pupil. In 
 those days there was an impassable barrier between Fellows 
 and Undergraduates. The former never appeared in College 
 without full wig, cap and gown, and occupied themselves 
 in tyrannising over the Undergraduates in a thousand petty 
 ways. For the most part they spent the time they could 
 spare from the bottle, the coffee house and the hunting field 
 in yawning over their books or in Chapel, and in delivering 
 lectures somewhat tedious and pompous to pupils whose 
 attendance was rigidly enforced. To this type of Mentor 
 there were indeed some honourable exceptions and of these 
 was the Dean of Christ Church, Cyril Jackson, a man of ripe 
 scholarship, cultivated tastes and kindly heart. Nor was his 
 wisdom confined to classics, for in knowledge of the social 
 and economic condition of England he stood second only to 
 Arthur Young. He introduced the then unheard-of innovation 
 of entertaining undergraduates daily, of endeavouring to make 
 of them friends and companions, and of studying the aims, 
 inclinations, ambitions and character of all of them. A single 
 instance will suffice to prove his great influence on Canning. 
 A mysterious and secret debating society had been formed 
 by Canning and some half dozen friends, among them the 
 future Lord Liverpool. They sometimes appeared in Hall 
 in their club blazer, which consisted of a coat of an uncommon 
 shade of brown, with velvet cuffs and collars, and buttons 
 which bore as a mystic device the initials of Demosthenes, 
 Pitt, Cicero and Fox. This uniform seems to have made the 
 same impression on other undergraduates as Mr. Jingle in 
 his Pickwick Club Coat did upon the dancers of Rochester. 
 But the secret of their object and purposes leaked out and 
 Canning, who at this time seems to have had serious designs 
 on the wool -sack, was warned by the Dean that his continu- 
 ance in the Club might injure his legal prospects, as he would 
 
 2 
 
26 Life of Canning 
 
 be thought to have parliamentary ambitions. He agreed and 
 resigned to the dismay of the Society, which forthwith 
 proceeded to move some violent resolutions. " I was 
 summoned to the bar, and of course refused to obey the 
 summons," writes Canning to Newton. " 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 satisfied by my declaring that the reason of my 
 resignation did not affect them collectively or individually." 
 But his defection did so far influence them as to damp their 
 parliamentary ardour and do away with their gorgeous 
 uniform. The debates indeed were renewed " but with less 
 pomp, regularity, numbers and vociferation." 
 
 This episode shows, as we have other reasons for believing, 
 that his friends on the whole were few, though distinguished 
 both in rank and intellect. They were Jenkinson, afterwards 
 his premier, Lord Morley afterwards Lord Boringdon and his 
 constant correspondent. Lord Holland the nephew of Fox, 
 Lord Carlisle, Newton and Sturges Bourne. He speaks 
 slightingly of the " utter emptiness and vanity of the generality 
 of good folks Christ Church can boast." But he was happy 
 in his little circle, and the rest of his time was spent in his 
 books and his studies. Such application was unusual, and as 
 praiseworthy as needless, because a degree in those days was 
 easy of attainment to the point of farce. In 1791, Canning 
 was made Bachelor of Arts, bade farewell to Alma Mater, 
 and set out to London to make a name for himself at the 
 Bar, with his mind well stored with academic knowledge and 
 his head full of dreams, hopes and ambitions. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF A GREAT PARLIAMENTARY CAREER 
 
 During the time he could spare from his books the young 
 law-student found himself able to enter at once into a society 
 as brilliant and interesting as any that ever existed. The 
 uniform dulness of Court life under George the Third had 
 estranged and chilled more people than his sons, and few 
 nobles ever appeared at the royal levees unless they held or 
 were seeking places. In those days the world of politics was 
 small, and social influence, ties of personal friendship and 
 intimacy supplied the place of the wire-puller, the Caucus and 
 the Whip. On the Tory side the leaders of rank and fashion 
 were the Duchess of Gordon and Lady Salisbury, who gave 
 balls, routs and receptions to the supporters of the Govern- 
 ment in order to out-shine the attractions of Devonshire and 
 Carlton House. The Prince of Wales had openly declared 
 his sympathy with the Whigs, giving banquets and dances in 
 the most lavish and splendid style, and subscribing to the 
 toasts of " Liberty of ^the People " and " Reform of Parlia- 
 ment." His handsome appearance, his genial good-nature 
 and liberality won admiration everywhere, and he as yet 
 showed little of the vanity, indulgence and weakness of his 
 later years. At Devonshire House the Whigs could fairly 
 boast that they assembled the largest share of the wisdom, 
 wit and beauty of England. " Sir," said Dr. Johnson one day 
 to the obsequious Bozzy, " Sir, we are now before the French 
 in literature. We had it long after them in England. Any 
 man who wears a powdered wig and sword is now ashamed 
 to be illiterate." Of Devonshire House it could certainly be 
 said that in brilliancy of wit, literary polish and political im- 
 portance its gatherings surpassed even the most famous of the 
 salons of Paris. The Duchess herself was well qualified to 
 preside over such a gathering, and her beauty personal charm 
 
28 Life of Canning 
 
 and ability had often proved resistless in politics. She had 
 secured the triumph of Fox in the Westminster election in 
 the teeth of the Government, who had vainly sought to check 
 her influence by secret bribes to the electors and by open 
 parliamentary opposition. More important still, she had 
 secured to the Whig cause a young recruit of great ability, 
 none other than the famous Mr. Grey, who was to lead the 
 Whig cause for many years amid the gloom of opposition, 
 and to become at last the premier who carried the Reform 
 Bill. There too was often to be seen the famous Mrs. Crewe, 
 inseparably associated with the Whig toast of the " Buif and 
 the Blue," whom Canning had styled " his tut'ress" in some 
 verses he had addressed to her. Fanny Burney remarked of 
 Mrs. Sheridan, the ' Saint Cecilia ' of the canvas of Reynolds, 
 that the " elegance of her beauty is unequalled by any I ever 
 saw except Mrs. Crewe, who uglifies everything near her." 
 Of those who came to listen to the beautiful voice of Mrs. 
 Sheridan, to exchange repartees and glances with Mrs. Crewe, 
 or to talk of party prospects with the Duchess, it must suffice 
 to recall the names. The Crown Prince might be seen 
 fraternizing with Charles Fox and his friend Colonel 
 Fitzpatrick, whilst Erskine wearied even 'good-natured 
 Devon ' with legends of his enormous practice and popularity 
 at the Bar. There too was sometimes to be found the melan- 
 choly and disappointed Marquis of Lansdowne, the Jesuit of 
 English politics, whose abilities had been equalled and 
 frustrated by his duplicity. With him came his friend the 
 famous Radical Bentham, to whom he prophesied that young 
 Canning would one day be Prime Minister, as he noted his 
 wit and brilliancy, already conspicuous even in that assembly. 
 There also was to be seen Earl Stanhope, who had redeemed 
 himself " from that leprous stain nobility " by erasing his crest 
 from his plate and his carriages and assuming the title of 
 citizen ; a feat only comparable to that of the two French 
 republican aristocrats, who refused to play piquet because of 
 the presence of kings and queens in the pack. Such person- 
 ages and such actions make it easier to explain the desertion 
 of Portland, Burke and Windham. Yet though their classic 
 learning and taste were now but seldom to be displayed at 
 Devonshire House, there still remained a great school in which 
 young Canning may have learnt some of the wit for which he 
 was afterwards so renowned. Selwyn was there cracking his 
 coarse jests. Gibbon tapping his snuff-box and displaying a 
 subtler irony. Hare with his boisterous humour, Curran with 
 
A Great Parhatnentary Career 29 
 
 his racy anecdotes, and wittier and more brilliant than all, the 
 incomparable Sheridan himself. 
 
 Of all the brilliant circle we have just described, Sheridan 
 from a certain superficial similarity of character and from his 
 close intimacy, had the greatest influence upon Canning. 
 Nature had endowed Sheridan with such transcendant gifts 
 that contemporaries forgave and posterity has forgotten his 
 excesses and errors. Before he was thirty his plays were 
 acknowledged as the classics of the comedy of manners. 
 Before he was forty he had delivered a speech which is still 
 the most famous and, in the opinion of all who heard it, the 
 finest ever uttered in the English language. In real life his 
 powers of wit and repartee were equal to those of his own 
 characters, and despite his origin his social was equal to his 
 parliamentary success. Such triumphs would have ruined a 
 nobler character than that of Sheridan, which needed adversity 
 to reveal its finer qualities at the gloomy and tragic close of 
 his career. Like some incomprehensible character of romance 
 he was both base and generous, unstable and chivalrous, vain 
 and lovable. We read with pain of his secret visits to 
 Chauvelin when England and France were on the brink of 
 war in 1793, of his many intrigues with the Crown Prince 
 against one colleague or another, of his deliberate and success- 
 ful attempt to sever the long and well tried friendship of 
 Burke and Fox. Mr. Creevey, the lately discovered Pepys of 
 the Regency era, tells how Lady Elizabeth Forster counselled 
 him, " to drink less and to speak the truth." The justification 
 of this brutal advice may be found in Russell's portrait, and 
 none who have studied his likeness or career can doubt that he 
 was fatally wanting in principle, balance and sincerity. Burke, 
 and finally Fox, became estranged from him, not primarily 
 because of a difference of view, but because of a difference of 
 conviction and earnestness. There is a well known story, 
 that Sheridan paid Canning's expenses at Eton, but it is 
 refuted by direct evidence to the contrary. Even without this 
 we might be sure that " poor Sherry's " poverty but not his 
 will refused. On one occasion indeed he stuffed his windows 
 with bank-notes to prevent them from rattlipg, but he was 
 usually unable even to pay the twopenny postman for his 
 letters. That official seems to have been the only person 
 whom he could not persuade to give him credit, for he cajoled 
 both his creditors and even his attorney. " There has been no- 
 thing like it since the days of Orpheus," says Byron. " He told 
 me he never had a shilling of his own. To be sure he con- 
 
30 Life of Canning 
 
 trived to extract a good many from other people," of whom Can- 
 ning was one. In his later years Sheridan sent a bond for £200 
 and a request for a loan to Canning, who at once sent the cheque 
 but threw the bond in the fire. 
 
 With his sinister attractiveness and reckless brilliancy 
 Sheridan was the true type of the Man and the Society in 
 which Canning's youth was passed. 
 
 "Poor fellow," said Wilberforce of Canning, "he had no 
 father or mother to train him up. He was brought up 
 I believe partly with Sheridan. I always wondered he 
 was so pure." But the boy had a sturdy character, which 
 enabled him to admire the abilities, imitate the wit, and 
 yet to despise the weakness of men of the extraordinary 
 personal charm of Sheridan and Fox. He had indeed noth- 
 ing of the temperament of the gambler or the drinker. Both 
 in life and in politics he always showed independence, clear 
 practical insight, and balanced judgment. " Tell me," * he 
 writes on Oct. 15, 1792, "that any person thinks so and so 
 about morals or about politics or any other subject, if there be 
 any other equally open to the consideration of all men and for 
 which no technical skill or particular habit is necessary. . . . 
 I should no more think of conforming to that of which I did 
 not approve, because of the authority by which it was supported, 
 than I should think of calling black white or white black, in 
 contradiction to my senses and in compliance to the fancy of 
 another. ... So long as God continues to me the power of 
 comparing, selecting and judging between facts and opinions, 
 it shall be my earnest endeavour to do so with as little 
 prejudice and partiality as possible, and that whatever faults 
 and errors I may commit I will at least have the satisfaction 
 of charging them upon my own responsibility, and will not 
 have it said to me, not justly said to me at least — ' This you 
 did on such a one's opinion ; thus you were the tool of that 
 man, here you were the echo of t'other.' " 
 
 Within a few months from this date he was a firm ally of 
 Pitt and within a year a Tory member of Parliament, and 
 what is more extraordinary his change of front resulted from 
 the principles laid down in this letter. At Oxford the ardour 
 of Canning's Whiggism had increased, and at the London 
 debating clubs of " The Hardwicke " and " The Crown and 
 Anchor" he had won great fame for his unusual combination 
 of passionate eloquence and close argument. A fragment of 
 
 * Quoted from a letter in the possession of Lord Stratford de RedclifFe, 
 from Recollections of George Canning, XlXth Century, Jan. i88o. 
 
A Great Parliamentary Career 31 
 
 his youthful eloquence at one of these meetings has been 
 preserved, and is interesting as shewing how early he suspected 
 the French Revolutionists. "To the steady eye of a 
 sagacious criticism the eloquence of Mirabeau will appear 
 to be as empty and vapid as his patriotism. It is like the 
 beverage, Sir," (addressing the President who was solacing 
 himself with a pot of porter) "which stands so invitingly 
 before you — foam and froth at the top, heavy and muddy 
 within." While Canning was declaiming at clubs, his Oxford 
 friend young Jenkinson had just entered Parliament, and made 
 his opening speech as the Tory Side, with great applause. 
 Sheridan had openly boasted that the Whigs would provide 
 an antidote in the person of young Canning. He was there- 
 fore pursued in his revolt by a swarm of taunts and sarcasms 
 from the Whigs, who pointed to his poverty and dependence as 
 the proof of their innuendoes. That he felt his action needed 
 explanation is clear, and for the purpose he sought* an inter- 
 view with Sheridan. We hear on good authority that he 
 adduced Sheridan himself as an instance of the chill exclusive- 
 ness of the Whig chiefs towards men of genius. Confidence 
 was a plant which grew hardly in that stony aristocratic soil. 
 In a Whig Ministry the lions of debate, with the single excep- 
 tion of Fox, always yielded place to the jackals of position and 
 wealth. The good-natured Sheridan is characteristically said 
 to have told Canning to snatch at his opportunity, and to ac- 
 cept a seat if Pitt offered it. But there are not wanting proofs 
 that conviction more than calculation occasioned a change of 
 view, which was neither so sudden nor complete as is imagined. 
 Precocious talent may have had more chance of shining in 
 ministerial ranks, but in 1792 the position of the Government 
 was extremely insecure. Thurlow and the Duke of Leeds 
 had left the Ministry and were working with the Opposition, 
 Burke and Portland had not yet definitely gone over to the 
 Tories. When Canning made his choice, which was at least 
 as early as the beginning of 1792, Pitt and Grenville felt so 
 weak that they were actually negotiating for a Coalition with 
 Fox and the more violent Whigs. While at Oxford! the 
 
 *Our only two good authorities on this subject are Lord Stratford de 
 Redcliffe as supra and Lord Dalling.— Historical Characters. 
 
 t This fact has been doubted, but Lord Stratford de Redclifife was 
 nearly certain of it, and Hookham Frere's testimony, which has escaped 
 the sceptics, is unassailable. Canning showed him the letter containing 
 the offer when he visited him at Oxford. 
 
 V. Works of Hookham Frere. Memoir of his Life. p. xxvi. 
 
32 Life of Canning 
 
 Duke of Portland offered Canning a pocket borough, which 
 he refused. To have accepted it would have implied a 
 judicious hesitancy^ and in fact prepared the way for a 
 transition to Toryism, a tendency which Canning had already 
 foreseen. To reject without hesitation a middle course, which 
 no one could have blamed him for taking, implies independence 
 rather than servility, repentance more than apostasy. He 
 said to Frere at this time " I think there must be a split. 
 The Duke will go over to Pitt, and I will go over in no man's 
 train. If I join Pitt, I will go by myself" Yet Pitt thought a* 
 coalition inevitable at this very moment, which was therefore 
 not a favourable one in which to flout both the Portland and 
 the Foxite Whigs. Lord Holland, who was present at the 
 interview with Sheridan, defended Canning's action at all 
 times and on all occasions against the resentment of his 
 fellow Whigs. Canning's words on a similar occasion show 
 both his fidelity to his convictions and his ardent desire for 
 independence. " How then am I to arrive at the objects of 
 my ambition ? " writes he to Lord Boringdon on Oct. 29, 
 1 801. ... "I must act as I think right. My road must be 
 through character to power ; that I may take this road and 
 miss the end is very possible ; nay, that by acting as I think 
 right, I may not, as surely as I expect it, get even to my 
 second stage — character — it is very possible also, but that I 
 cannot help!' The Whig satirists were undoubtedly of a 
 different opinion. 
 
 Romance and imagination are sometimes the friends and 
 interpreters of History, but they appear as traitors in a 
 picturesque incident related by Sir Walter Scott of Canning 
 at this time. While Canning was studying at the Temple, he 
 was approached by the famous Godwin and offered the leader- 
 ship of the English Revolutionary movement towards Com- 
 munism and Fraternity. Canning hesitated and at length 
 rejected the offer, and shocked by the violence of Godwin and 
 his friends flung himself into the arms of Pitt. This story 
 is said to have come from Sir William Knighton, though it is 
 unaccountably absent from his memoirs and his testimony 
 would in any case be most dubious. Godwin himself was of 
 
 * For these attempted coalitions v. Pol. Mem. Duke of Leeds. Edition 
 O. Browning pp. 201-2, and Fitzmaurice's Shelburne from which we learn 
 that the king seriously thought of dismissing Pitt in 1792. 
 
 As late as Jan., 1793, the negotations between Pitt and Fox were still in 
 the balance, and Portland's attitude still undecided, v. Lord Sheffield 
 to Gibbon. Corresp. ed. R. E, Prothero II. 351, 63. 
 
A Great Parliamentary Career 33 
 
 small celebrity till his Political Justice was published in 1793, 
 and was unlikely to seek a (*) mere boy for the conduct of so 
 great an enterprise when such men as Tom Paine, Home 
 Tooke and Earl Stanhope were at hand. Pitt the old order 
 and Godwin the new are represented as contending for the 
 person of Canning, like Squire Beltham and Richmond Roy for 
 the possession of Harry Richmond. This is the contemporary 
 view embodied in the story, which has no real claims to 
 authenticity. We are told that Dumas once produced a 
 historical work describing the Flight to Varennes, and on 
 asking his friends for their opinion was informed that he had 
 added one more to his long list of fascinating romances. The 
 same may be said of Sir Walter Scott and this legend of 
 Canning which he relates with all the convincing realism of 
 fiction. 
 
 On the whole the conduct of Canning on this occasion seems 
 more worthy of praise than blame, which cannot be said of it 
 at some other critical turning-points of his life. Whig doc- 
 trines of an extreme type had been instilled into him by the 
 memory and the writings of his father, by his up-bringing and 
 by his associates. These generous extravagances remained 
 with him for a time whilst he read for the Bar, and until at the 
 suggestion of Burke he seriously began to consider the political 
 situation in view of a parliamentary career. If ever there was 
 a time when preconceived ideas were overthrown, it was as we 
 shall show, at that stage in the French Revolution which was 
 reached in 1792. Though Canning's views had changed as 
 early as the middle of 1792 we know from a letter of Dec. 13, 
 that he still had no thought of a parliamentary career. He 
 could have hardly emancipated himself from the creed of his 
 faith at an earlier age than that of twenty-two, whilst to the 
 last some of his ideas remained distinctly Whig. But he was 
 no believer in half measures and being on the whole less Whig 
 than Tory, sided with Pitt, cut himself adrift from the Portland 
 Whigs and even subsequently protested against their inclusion 
 in the ministry. It has been said that he sought an interview 
 
 * The epigram of Colonel Fitzpatrick on his desertion of the Whigs is 
 alone sufficient disproof: — 
 
 '' The turning of coats so common is grown 
 
 That no one would wish to attack it, 
 But no case until now was so flagrantly known 
 Of a schoolboy turning his jacket.'' 
 Godwin however certainly knew Canning at this time.— Macvey Napier 
 Sel. Correspondence, p. 104. 
 
34 Life of Canning 
 
 with Pitt on his own initiative and without previous acquaint- 
 ance, but we now know that Hookham Frere was the cause of 
 their first meeting. So narrow was the world in those days 
 that Pitt had already heard of his fame as a debating club 
 orator, and expressed a desire to secure his services for the 
 Tory party. " With his humour and fancy it was impossible 
 to resist him,'' says Frere, and he soon became one of the 
 few admitted into intimacy with the most austere and Olym- 
 pian of British statesmen. 
 
 The period at which Canning entered the House of 
 Commons was the golden time of English oratory. A later 
 and more commercial age has neither time nor space for 
 eloquence, and the tongue of a Fox would not now cajole a 
 single member to vote against the command of his whip and 
 his caucus. The man of business clamours for facts and 
 statistics, not classical quotations nor rolling Ciceronian 
 periods, nor even those lofty appeals to the conscience and the 
 passions which mark the great utterance of that earlier day. 
 Such demands are fatal to an eloquence which depended so 
 much on the leisure, the taste and the appreciation of a 
 highly cultured class. To turn back from the speech of our 
 own day to eighteenth century oratory, is like passing from a 
 factory, with its whirling engines, busy tired workers and 
 confined close atmosphere, to some old world garden with its 
 trim well-clipt hedges, its calm marble statues and wide 
 stately lawns. The fame of English eloquence was then such 
 that foreign visitors flocked to the " British Senate" as to the 
 Opera. No more brilliant and accomplished body of orators 
 ever sat within the walls of the Commons than in 1793. Of 
 these the greatest in the eyes of that posterity, to whom he so 
 often appealed, is undoubtedly Burke, though the less dis- 
 criminating wits of his own day nicknamed him the " Dinner 
 Bell." His speeches as we read them to-day show a philo- 
 sophic insight and grasp of politics almost unequalled in 
 history, united to a burning and passionate eloquence. But 
 they were often too diffuse and profound for a place of debate, 
 the wit was somewhat ponderous, the fancy over-gorgeous and 
 extravagant, and the meaning obscure from the exceeding 
 internal lustre of the mind. To these speeches, whose visions 
 were of the future and whose principles were of all time, there 
 could be no greater contrast than the utterances of Fox, so 
 admirably adapted for the occasion, so full of temporary 
 interest and the passion of the moment. Burke declared him 
 to be the " most brilliant and accomplished debater the world 
 
A Great Parliamentary Career 35 
 
 has ever seen," and to this colossal destructive power he added 
 a universal sympathy and glorious humanity, which but for 
 his violence would have made the causes he advocated, resist- 
 less. Marvellous indeed must have been the powers which 
 made his audience forget not only his extravagances of opinion, 
 his excessive repetitions and somewhat turgid rhetoric, but 
 his uncouth gestures, coarse features, and harsh unpleasing 
 voice. Sheridan, the other great orator of opposition, had 
 little indeed of the fiery passion of Fox. With a more famous 
 single speech to his credit than any other English orator, his 
 usual efforts were over-loaded with ornament and gaudy 
 rhetoric. In carefully polished wit and effective repartee he 
 was perhaps never equalled, unless by Canning himself, and 
 Pitt often suffered under the lash of his sarcasm. But sincerity 
 is above all a necessity for the orator, and his speeches were 
 often perilously like those of Tartuffe or his own Joseph Sur- 
 face. The ministerialists remarked with some truth of the three 
 Whig orators, that Burke said in debate what no one else ever 
 said, Sheridan what no one ought to say, and Fox what no 
 one else would dare to say. Of other orators there were 
 Windham and Whitbread, Erskine and Tierney and Grey, all 
 remarkable for a stately and classical type of eloquence, and 
 men who in an age of less brilliancy would not have secured 
 the neglect of posterity. 
 
 Even without Windham and Burke the opposition had still 
 an astounding array of talent. That it was less formidable 
 than appeared is probable, for the presence of several men of 
 genius is less likely to be a link than a dissolvent of party 
 union. But on the side of the Government the genius of Pitt 
 was uncontested by the pretensions of a rival in the Commons. 
 Accordingly his followers, who were with few exceptions dull 
 mediocrities or royal placemen, blindly followed his direction. 
 The speeches of Dundas, his only effective supporter, were 
 marked by nothing more than business ability and vigorous 
 common sense. A famous anecdote illustrates how completely 
 the burden of attack and defence on the Government side lay 
 upon the shoulders of one man. One day Pitt and Dundas, 
 like Falstafif and Prince Henry rehearsed a little comedy in 
 private life, Pitt playing the part of Fox in an attack and 
 Dundas that of the Government on its defence. That night 
 Fox delivered an assault in much the same style as Pitt had 
 foreseen, and Dundas to his amazement was for once left to 
 reply for the Government. It has been said that one reason 
 for the decay of parliamentary oratory is the necessity for 
 
36 Life of Canning 
 
 speaking constantly and at length, without preparation. But 
 Pitt confronted, almost alone, the varied attack of the opposi- 
 tion and poured forth, without premeditation and in'an endless 
 stream, sentences which were smooth correct and almost 
 classic in their elegance. They wanted only the vital spark 
 of genius to transmute them into the highest form of literature. 
 Uniform in their monotonous stateliness, his speeches lack the 
 passion of Fox or the imagination of Burke. His vague and 
 shallow generalisations, his lucid expositions of detail contain 
 few phrases of note and only one which has endured, that in 
 the last speech he ever uttered when he bade England, having 
 saved herself by her exertions, save Europe by her example. 
 But the dignity of character and loftiness of aim, which lay 
 beneath his sonorous and spontaneous variations of the 
 commonplace, made him an antagonist with whom none but 
 Fox could grapple with success. 
 
 In July, 1793, Canning entered Parliament where two of his 
 old friends had already won for themselves some distinction 
 on the side of the Government. These were Jenkinson, after- 
 wards his Premier, and Mornington whom Hindus still revere 
 as the greatest man who ever ruled in India save Hastings, 
 A picture, painted of the House by Anton Hickel in 1793. 
 represents Pitt speaking and Canning leaning eagerly forward 
 from behind the Treasury Bench, to catch his words. It 
 was not till the 31st January, 1794, that the young orator 
 rose to address the House on the subject of a subsidy to 
 the King of Sardinia. It is interesting to note in his very 
 first speech the clear practical insight which regarded both 
 the partition of Poland and the opposition to France as a ques- 
 tion rather of expediency than sentiment. For a maiden speech 
 it is strangely void of eloquence and full of argument. He 
 exhibits considerable talent for debate attacking Fox himself 
 with some effect, but with a sarcasm somewhat elementary 
 and a logic degenerating into sophistry. The speech, though 
 applauded, disappointed most of his friends, but Fanny 
 Burney speaks of it with enthusiasm. Yet its very excellence 
 shows how great must have been his reputation if he was 
 supposed to have fallen short of it in this effort. There are 
 echoes both of Demosthenes and Burke, and Canning was 
 little qualified, from his elegance and precision of style, to 
 copy the latter. ' Apollo imitating Hercules,' sneered the 
 Whigs, and there was much truth in this criticism. The 
 young orator was as yet too academic in thought and 
 manner ; he sought to lecture and to legislate for his 
 
A Great Parliamentary Career 37 
 
 audience rather than to cajole or persuade them. But with 
 the insight of genius and the aid of industry and patience, 
 he learnt new lessons, soon catching the tone and the ear of 
 the House with such cleverness, that when he rose to his feet 
 the dismay of the Opposition and the applause of the Govern- 
 ment were such as Pitt had until now alone been enabled to 
 awake and to inspire. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Jacobin and Anti-Jacobin 
 
 Though the slow growth of a plant from seed to flower 
 excites no wonder in the breast of a savage, he is dismayed 
 and horrified by an avalanche. In the man of science both 
 examples of the working of Nature's Laws excite the same 
 enthusiasm or indifference. Even so should the historian 
 strive to regard human history and political events, for towards 
 them the attitude of the eye-witness is often that of the 
 savage. Some revolutions have been unnoticed and dis- 
 regarded, others are supposed to have broken Heaven's 
 design. No on-looker marvelled at the slow and silent 
 process by which constitutional government developed in 
 England or toleration in Europe. But of the French Revolu- 
 tion no contemporary ever spoke but as the greatest, the 
 most terrible, the most unforeseen event in the world's 
 history. Nor did this result wholly proceed from the shocks 
 which it gave to venerable authority and to the time-worn 
 bases of Society. It was not only that men shuddered to see 
 Kings deposed and privileges overthrown, rivers of blood 
 flowing, and madmen declaring war upon all countries at once. 
 But the fixity and self-sufficiency of the old creeds and ideas 
 of politics and life offered no standards by which to judge the 
 force or the continuance of the new movements. " On a fair 
 review of ancient and modern times," wrote Gibbon, " I can 
 find none that bear any affinity to the present." Men of the 
 older order were stunned and paralysed, seeing nothing but 
 madness and despair in the present, and the sinister triumph 
 of the principles of anarchy and blood in the future. The 
 age of common sense paid the full penalty for its incurable 
 optimism and self-complacency, and found in the French 
 Revolution something colossal, superhuman, incalculable. 
 Yet despite its epic character and imperishable effects it is 
 
Jacobin and Anti- Jacobin 39 
 
 probable that this movement has brought less radical changes 
 in modes of thought and life than the religious awakening of 
 the sixteenth century. 
 
 By the Reformation the ideals of a world-state and a 
 world-religion were shattered, and toleration and the spirit of 
 rational inquiry became at least a possibility. For a time 
 this critical and inquisitive spirit was occupied in religious 
 controversy ; but in the eighteenth century arose a school of 
 philosophers who employed it to attack the political and 
 social systems of the day. Political despotism with the 
 existence of privileged and exclusive classes was a universal 
 feature of the Continent. Religious toleration, where it 
 existed, was due rather to practice than to principle. In most 
 countries there was great misery among the populace due 
 partly to their ignorance but partly also to excessive taxation 
 and bad government. The Reformation had done much to 
 free the mind, but authority was still supreme over the body 
 of Man. Despite the existence of a few benevolent despots 
 like Frederic of Prussia and Joseph of Austria, the philoso- 
 phers could argue with some show of reason that all the evils 
 of government were due to the tyranny of the altar and the 
 throne. According to Rousseau — Primitive man, whose 
 instincts are to make slaves of his women-folk and to brain 
 his fellow man at sight, had acquired from the untaught grace 
 of life and the untutored impulses of nature the noble soul of 
 a Sidney and the moral grandeur of St. Francis of Assisi. 
 Free him from the fetters of existing ideas and institutions 
 and the reign of universal freedom, peace and love would 
 begin. In France a wealthy and well-educated middle-class 
 accepted these views, in the sense that power and privilege 
 should be transferred from the nobles and the King to 
 themselves. This alone would mark the profound difference 
 between the French and English Revolutions. The English 
 settlement of 1688 was political, it deprived the King of most 
 of his power and placed it in the hands of the Whig nobles. 
 But social swallowed up political changes in the French 
 Revolution, which aimed not only at depriving the King of 
 his power, but at over-turning systems of privilege altogether 
 and establishing social equality. The French Constitution of 
 1 79 1 left the Crown and the nobles exceedingly weak, and 
 gave the chief power to the bourgeoise. But the middle-class 
 were now in a position illogical in theory and untenable in 
 fact, for behind them stood the people eager for power and 
 awake with enthusiasm. The Jacobins at once began to stir 
 
40 Life of Canning 
 
 up democratic passions, and to proclaim the sovereignty of 
 the people and the need of universal suffrage. The masses 
 were still unsatisfied and were soon to show that they could 
 not be resisted. 
 
 That a struggle between these parties in France itself was 
 imminent at the beginning of 1792 cannot therefore be 
 doubted, but the interference of other nations served to deepen 
 its excesses and to increase its savagery. The French 
 emigrant nobles had striven to excite the hostility of Europe 
 towards the Revolution, and Austria and Prussia were in 
 alliance, and not unwilling to profit by what they believed to 
 be the weakness of France. The safety of Louis XVI. was 
 declared by them to be the common cause of all crowned 
 heads. Kaunitz the Austrian Minister openly abused the 
 Jacobins in his despatches. Such an attitude towards her in- 
 ternal affairs was more than any proud nation could endure, 
 and in 1792 war was declared between the two allies and 
 France. Monarchy soon perished and, with the establishment 
 of a militant and victorious republic, France appeared before 
 Europe in a new light. She seemed to be contending with 
 a league of despots, who had attempted to tyrannise over her 
 and inflict upon her humiliations. Her sympathies were 
 universal, her principles aggressive, she posed as the champion 
 of the people against her rulers, of social equality and 
 promotion by merit, of religious and political liberty. She 
 was the sworn foe of feudalism, priestcraft and despotism. 
 The world was to be moulded anew by her influence on 
 the republican principles of virtue, peace and love. "The 
 nations," said Isnard the famous Girondin orator, " will 
 embrace in the presence of dethroned tyrants, of the earth 
 consoled, of heaven satisfied." The French armies were the 
 pilgrims of liberty going forth to free their brethren in all 
 lands from the tyrannies of a thousand years. To the soldier 
 of France war was a crusade, to the statesman politics were 
 a religion, and Reason which they assumed as their sole 
 guide had the colour and the inspiration of Faith. In action 
 as in expression, sublimity was mingled with farce and 
 baseness with heroism, but even at this distance it is hard to 
 look upon the enthusiasms and the dreams of 1792 without 
 emotion. 
 
 " Bliss was it in that time to be alive 
 But to be young was very Heaven " 
 wrote Wordsworth, long afterwards, of that time of golden 
 promise and fair illusion. 
 
Jacobin and Anti- Jacobin 41 
 
 Like many moderate Whigs and Tories, Canning had 
 sympathised with the progress of the Revolution till 1791, 
 and seen in the adoption of a constitutional form of govern- 
 ment of the English type a warrant of stability and hope. 
 Nor did even the establishment of a Republic shake his 
 faith, for non-interference with the internal affairs of other 
 nations was then, as always, his principle. " So long," * he 
 writes in a letter to Lord Boringdon, Dec. 13, 1792, " as they 
 were struggling for their own liberty, so long as they were 
 clearing the way for the erection of that Constitution, of 
 which the inhabitants of the country, as if with one soul 
 and one voice, had expressed their choice and demanded the 
 trial, I wished most piously and heartily for the destruction of 
 every impediment. . . . And this from a thorough persuasion 
 that the right of a nation to choose for itself its own con- 
 stitution, is a right which they claim from God and Nature 
 alone, and for the exercise of which to God and Nature alone 
 
 they are amenable I (now) feel that their situation 
 
 and disposition are extremely changed, and that my senti- 
 ments and wishes must, if I have any consistency, change 
 with them. Helpless and insulted, oppressed at home and 
 attacked by a formidable invasion froip abroad, struggling 
 with an exertion unparalleled in history, for the acquirement 
 of a blessing of the value of which no nation ever seemed 
 more sensible, and of which perhaps no nation but themselves 
 ever made a bad use the moment they had acquired it ; . . . 
 my opinions, my hopes . . . and my prayers went with them ; 
 and I exulted in the defeat of their enemies .... Now 
 indeed, I find them a very diiferent people, victorious every- 
 where, but where it most concerned them to look for victory, 
 over their own cursed factions and banditti of assassins and 
 conspirators ; not oppressed, attacked, and insulted, but in- 
 solent beyond all bounds, professing universal oppression, and 
 proving to demonstration that the best blessing of Heaven, 
 when put into bad hands as liberty into theirs . . . may be 
 converted into a plague for the dis-quiet and destruction of 
 all mankind ; in this character they carry nothing with them 
 of mine, but my contempt and dread and execration." 
 
 This letter contains in brief compass the whole case against 
 the French Revolution. For a moment many had pitied 
 
 *Stapleton's Life and Times, George Canning, pp. 8-10 Cf., also letter 
 of Dec. 4, 1792, quoted by Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, where he also 
 avows his belief in Catholic Emancipation. These letters incidentally 
 afford the strongest proofs of the sincerity of his change in opinions. 
 
 3 
 
42 Life of Canning 
 
 France when attacked by what Victor Hugo calls "that heap 
 of tigers, the Kings." The wild utterances of the Girondists 
 and Jacobins soon began to inspire fear and disgust. But 
 these vague and haughty denunciations might not have 
 roused the peace-loving Pitt. "They might" said Canning, 
 " have been thought a harmless idiot lunacy like that which 
 dressed women in oak leaves and invented new names for the 
 Calendar." But the English were roused by the bloody 
 horrors of the September massacres, by the savage denunci- 
 ations and the yet more savage energy of the Jacobins, which 
 culminated in the trial and execution of the King. This deed 
 was meant as a defiance to Europe, and combined with the 
 democratic reorganization of Belgium by France to convince 
 the English that she had renounced all obligations to the past, 
 and would set aside at her pleasure the international system of 
 Europe in the future. 
 
 Hitherto Pitt's foreign policy had been one of great 
 success ; he had been the general pacificator of Europe, and 
 had restored to England much of the authority she had 
 lost since 1783. But though firmness of character may be 
 sufficient for the conduct of a successful foreign policy during 
 peace-time, Pitt's diplomacy at the beginning and in the 
 process of the war was not equal to his fame. A born fin- 
 ancier, Pitt looked upon the war with France as a matter of 
 profit and loss ; English Stocks were very high, French 
 assignats were worth but a tenth of their face value, and 
 therefore England was sure to conquer. But History mocks 
 the predictions of the ledger and the account book, and Pitt 
 forgot that the energy and spirit of a people and the weak- 
 ness and disunion of its foes are sometimes of more import- 
 ance than a veteran army or a swollen Treasury. Nor was 
 1793 the only year in which he miscalculated the forces against 
 him. He defended the continuance of the war on the ground 
 that it cost France more per month than it did England. A 
 fortnight before Marengo, he told Wilberforce he "could name 
 the week in which it would be impossible for the French to go 
 on, beggared as he knew them to be in their resources." He 
 was also influenced by the passionate desire in England for 
 war, and by a determination to uphold the established system 
 of international rights and duties and defend our allies, the 
 Dutch. But apart from this he thought the war would be 
 short and perhaps not unprofitable. The strong recommenda- 
 tions of Dundas, who pointed to the spoil of French colonies 
 beyond sea, undoubtedly weighed with him. "The war," he told 
 
Jacobin and Anti- Jacobin 43 
 
 Wilberforce, " would be over in a twelvemonth," when in fact 
 the accession of England both prolonged and made universal 
 a war, which could now only cease with the total defeat of the 
 French or the complete subjection of the Continent to her 
 principles. The truth is, the French Revolution was beyond 
 the range and understanding of the ablest statesmen of the 
 day, and Pitt no wiser than the rest was at least superior to 
 them in the spirit of cosmopolitan unselfishness with which he 
 carried on the war once undertaken. 
 
 One man indeed from the first had foreseen the tendencies 
 and the progress of the Revolution. " Burke's prescient scart 
 pierced through foul Anarchy's gigantic plan, prompt to in- 
 credulous hearers to disclose, the guilt of France and Europe's 
 world of woes." Thus wrote Canning in the " New Morality," 
 in verses worthy only of his father. Burke rejoiced in the 
 declaration of war to French principles, and for that very 
 reason predicted its length and bitterness to the incredulous 
 Pitt and Dundas* the day after war broke out. "We are 
 at war," wrote he, " with a system . . . inimical to all other 
 governments . . . with an armed doctrine. It has by its 
 essence a faction of opinion, of interest, and of enthusiasm in 
 every country. To us it is a colossus which bestrides our 
 Channel . . . Thus advantaged if it can at all exist, it must 
 decisively prevail." Till 1792 his utterances had been regarded 
 as the ravings of distempered genius ; he had attracted only 
 the reactionary and the bigoted. Now Canning and the great 
 body of moderates looked upon his foresight as miraculous 
 and his judgment as infallible. " I was convinced," writes 
 Canning, Nov. 28, 1799, of this period, "that our enemies were 
 such as could be reclaimed only by being crushed, and our 
 cause one which would finally triumph only if clearly and un- 
 equivocally defined." This is a calmer view, but there is some- 
 thing here of the spirit in which Burke urged on his followers 
 to the destruction of " the cannibal philosophers, the banditti, 
 the assassins, and the bloody felons who yet annoy the world." 
 The march of opinion is best illustrated in Gibbon, to whom 
 all religions were equally false, and to whom bigotry and 
 despots were alike abhorrent. Driven in his old age from 
 Lausanne by the Revolution, he found in democracy some- 
 thing crueller than kings and more intolerant than priests. 
 He came to Devonshire House no longer to agree but to dis- 
 pute with his old friends, to persuade them that the members 
 
 * Harford's Recollections of Wilberforce, pp. 152-3. 
 
44 Life of Canning 
 
 of the Convention were devils, and that therefore " democratic 
 principles led by a path of flowers to hell." If the most 
 cynical and indifferent of men could write thus, it is easy to 
 explain the horror and dismay of the English people, to whom 
 the French goddess of liberty appeared as bearing 
 
 " In her right a civic wreath. 
 
 In her left a human head." 
 
 ******* 
 
 The first number of the Anti-Jacobin was published on 
 November 20, 1797, the last on July 9, 1798. The contributors 
 included George Ellis, a quondam satirist of the Tories in the 
 Rolliad, Hookham Frere.Bragge, Hiley Addington, Mornington 
 whilst Gifford, author of the " Baviad " and " Maeviad " was the 
 editor. The assignment of authorship to the various pieces can- 
 not be made with certainty, as several were confessedly written 
 in collusion, and as each separate number was revised, talked 
 over and sometimes composed in meetings of the whole body 
 of contributors at the house of Lord Malmesbury and the pub- 
 lisher's office. The same precautions to conceal both their meet- 
 ings and their names were used as were afterwards adopted by 
 Brooks and Lord Malmesbury and Canning in the negotiations 
 of Lisle. Canning was the life and soul of the " Anti-Jacobin " 
 as of the " Microcosm." It is now certain that but for oc- 
 casional assistance from Frere, Canning was the sole author 
 of the " Friend of Humanity and the Knife-grinder," " Mrs. 
 Brownrigg the Prentice-cide," the " Progress of Man, parts 
 two and three," and the " Song of Rogero." Frere was long 
 supposed to be part author of the " New Morality," but in a 
 letter of July 11, 1798, Canning calls himself its author, so 
 that the assistance of Frere could only have been small. The 
 majestic Pitt, who had contributed some prose articles on 
 Finance to the Anti-Jacobin, is by tradition supposed to 
 have written some lines in this poem. They contained the 
 much admired simile of the " Oak and the Stream." 
 The oak planted by a streamlet's side is loosened in 
 its fibres and finally overthrown by the noiseless action 
 of the current, just as England is undermined by French 
 principles. " You are quite right," wrote Canning to Auck- 
 land, " I think, about the Oak and the Stream. Perhaps 
 you may not recollect that the simile is doubly a theft . . . 
 first from some lines in Waller, which Mr. Pitt will be 
 too happy to read or spout to you any day that you may 
 see him, secondly from some very pretty verses of 
 West to Gray." These words seem to indicate Pitt's col- 
 
Jacobin and Anti-Jacobin 45 
 
 lusion, though hardly his originality, with regard to the 
 aforementioned simile. 
 
 The satire of the Anti-Jacobin is directed against French 
 principles, which it defines as a " declaration of the Wrongs 
 of Providence and Rights of Man." The Jacobin thinks 
 " All constitutions bad but those bran new " ; that the evils of 
 the world are due to government, and priests, and kings are 
 the common enemies and oppressors of all. " To be in 
 this dark abode amongst toads and spiders," says Rogero 
 in " the Rovers," " or in a royal palace amidst the more 
 loathsome reptiles of a Court, would be indifferent to me." 
 " The conscience of a poor man is as valuable to him as that of 
 a prince," says the Landlady in the same play. " It ought to 
 be still more so, in proportion as it is generally more pure," 
 protests the Waiter with cold reproof But not content with 
 attacking political and religious institutions they assault 
 morals, manners, and human society in general. " Poets in 
 all ages have despised riches and grandeur, which the 
 Jacobin has transmuted into a hatred of everything rich and 
 great, and has declared that natural and eternal warfare should 
 exist between rich and poor." The universality of their 
 emotions and appeals is mercilessly ridiculed, as based on the 
 idea of the innate goodness of the " natural man " and the 
 " noble savage." " What Otaheite is, let Britain be," whom 
 cold laws and colder customs bind. 
 
 " And Love then only flaps his purple wings 
 When uncontrolled by priestcraft and by kings." 
 
 The " Anti-Jacobin " comments gravely upon the vicious 
 refinements of civilised society in respect to marriage, and 
 the consequent appearance of " that two-headed monster Man 
 and Wife." To the principles based on moral truth and 
 gospel law the Jacobins have opposed innate sense of right, 
 fancy and taste, and " nature's impulse all unchecked by Art." 
 
 Canning and his friends then turned to the more purely 
 literary side of the movement upon the Continent, and 
 ridiculed the excessive sensibility of Rousseau and that 
 school of romance and sentiment of which Kotzebue, Schiller 
 and Goethe were the reigning representatives. " The Rovers " 
 happily satirizes their calm disregard of the classic unities of 
 time and space, in the belief that unity of action alone was 
 sufiScient. It is aimed chiefly at Goethe's " Stella," Schiller's 
 " Robbers " ; and Kotzebue's " The Stranger," which Sheridan 
 
4^ Life of Canning 
 
 had helped to translate. Rogero, the Prisoner in Weimar 
 Abbey appears as the symbol of false mediaevalism, and clad 
 in rusty armour and clanking his chains amidst coffins' 
 scutcheons, deaths head's and cross-bones, sings as follows : 
 
 " Sun moon and thou vain world adieu, 
 
 That kings and priests are plotting in, 
 Here doomed to starve on water-gru- 
 el. Never shall I see the U- 
 Niversity of Gottingen." 
 
 The announcement of the signing of Magna Charta is read 
 by two Englishmen, Beefington and Puddingfield, at Weimar 
 in the "Daily Advertiser," which also informs them that 
 Bacon has been made Chancellor and their own outlawry 
 reversed. The sad story of Rogero comes to their ears and 
 they resolve to release him. The waiter reveals himself as a 
 Knight Templar in disguise, and the army of Liberty is 
 swollen by the advent of Troubadours returning from the 
 Crusades and Prussian and Austrian Grenadiers from the 
 Seven Years' War. They vainly summon the Abbey to 
 deliver up Rogero and attack it, but without success until the 
 arrival of Q. Curtius and Manius Curius Dentatus, in their 
 proper military habits with the Roman Eagle and the batter- 
 ing ram. Despite the gallant sallies of ministers and lay- 
 brothers the gates are forced, the den of priestcraft and 
 superstition falls amid the shouts of its assailants, and Rogero 
 is released. 
 
 In the " New Morality," Canning shows how the Revolu- 
 tionists have practised their doctrines of universal love and 
 fraternity. Sensibility, that "sweet child of Rousseau's 
 Sickly Fancy," is 
 
 " Taught by nice scale to mete her feelings strong 
 False by degrees and exquisitely wrong ; — 
 For the crushed beetle first, — the widowed dove, 
 
 — and last of all, 
 For Parents, Friends, a King and Country's fall. 
 . . Droops in soft sorrow o'er a faded flower. 
 O'er a dead jackass pours the pearly shower ;— 
 But hears unmoved of Loire's ensanguined flood, 
 Choked up with slain ; of Lyons drenched in blood ? 
 
 The enmity the Jacobins have excited between rich and poor 
 has resulted only in confiscation, 
 
 " in whose sweeping toils 
 The poor man's pittance and the rich man's spoils, 
 Mixed in one common mass are swept away 
 To glut the short lived tyrant of the day." 
 
Jacobin and Anti-Jacobin 47 
 
 Freedom has resulted only in the cruel and bloody despotism 
 of the " anointed Five Directors," who are concerned only 
 with plunder or with bribes. The moral character of these 
 apostles of virtue is described in a style that only the 
 eighteenth century could appreciate or print. La Reveillere 
 Lepaux, the " Sovereign Priest or Directorial Lama," had 
 devised a religion consisting chiefly in the adoration of a 
 great Book, wherein all the virtuous actions of Society were 
 to be entered, and which was to serve as a guide of all times 
 of crisis like the Sibylline Books. Otherwise the new faith 
 seems to have been an anticipation of Comte and the religion 
 of Humanity. Christ is a "Counter Revolutionist," and 
 Lepaux therefore is the one object whom atheists worship, 
 and to whom all republicans " wave their red caps, and chaunt 
 a jocund strain." This song became the stock defence of 
 persons tried in English Courts for blasphemy who pointed 
 to this passage as an excuse for their own utterance. 
 
 " Praise him each Jacobin and fool and knave, 
 And your cropped heads, in sign of worship wave, 
 All creeping creatures venomous and low 
 Paine, Williams, Godwin, Holcroft, praise Lepaux ! " 
 
 In a letter to Lord Auckland, from which quotation has 
 already been made, Canning writes, " It is parodied from 
 Milton not from the Psalm (Benedicite) ", which seems 
 an evasion in the nature of casuistry. " If anything should 
 occur to you in the shape of note, comment, or exposition, 
 particularly anything historical relative to the French 
 characters (to Lafayette for example) or to any scoundrels 
 or — of the same school you cannot do me a greater plea- 
 sure than by communicating it." He goes on to say he 
 had thought of publishing in the new edition "a copious 
 dissertation in the form of a note to explain . . . the general 
 principles on which coarse diction in the chastisement of 
 coarse wickedness is not excusable only but in some degree 
 necessary, . . . and I should hope it may do away all offence 
 by evincing the real scope and purity of the author's intention." 
 Such then was his defence. " I feel no uneasiness, whatever 
 may be the result of ridiculing the abettors of vice and French 
 principles " wrote the coarsest of English caricaturists. It is 
 to be feared that the explanations of Canning and the com- 
 placency of Gillray were viewed with equal distrust and 
 suspicion by Mrs. Grundy and Wilberforce. 
 
 In the " New Morality " Canning turned suddenly upon the 
 English admirers of the Jacobins, accusing them of vices 
 
48 Life of Canning 
 
 equal only to their absurdities, and of the additional crime of 
 which the great originals were at least happily innocent, that 
 of servile imitation. " How do we ape thee France," is the 
 constant charge of the satirist. Condorcet is presented to 
 English readers " filtered through the dregs of Paine," 
 Coleridge, Southey, Lamb and Priestley are blind worshippers 
 of Rousseau and Lepaux. The only two Englishmen who 
 had shown much originality were Erasmus Darwin and Payne 
 Knight. The former, in the " Loves of the Vegetables " and 
 the latter in " the Progress of Civil Society," had attempted 
 in a pseudo-scientific manner to make that comparison 
 between Man and Nature, which Herbert Spencer subsequently 
 drew out with such minute precision. The didactic and 
 prosaic parts of each poem are mimicked with ludicrous skill. 
 The softer passions, hitherto supposed to belong to humanity. 
 
 "Warm 'midst seas of ice the melting whales, 
 Cools the crimpt cod, fierce pangs to perch imparts 
 Shrinks shrivelled shrimps but opens oysters hearts ! " 
 
 Every animal except rash and lawless Man has his part 
 and lot assigned in creation's plan. " The feathered race with 
 pinions skim the air, not so the mackerel and still less the 
 bear." The owl does not descend and crop the tender flower 
 with the flocks, or the heifer fish-like strive to swim. " Fortes 
 creantur fortibus et bonis," say they with Horace. 
 
 " Uncostly Cabbage springs from cabbage-seed 
 Lettuce, to lettuce, leeks to leeks succeed ; 
 Nor e'er did cooling cucumbers presume 
 To flower like myrtle or like violets bloom." 
 
 Only the inconceivable folly and presumption of man has 
 induced him to 
 
 " Resign his native rights for meaner things. 
 For Faith and Fetters — Laws and Priests and Kings." 
 
 To discredit the '' moral influence of Jacobinism " was to 
 Canning of more importance than the checking of its political 
 ambitions. The "Anti-Jacobin" therefore turned and at- 
 tacked the Whigs whom it persisted in regarding as a united 
 party. In reality there were three distinct parties often 
 opposed to one another, the Radicals led by Home Tooke 
 and Stanhope, the Whigs by Sheridan and Fox, the Re- 
 formers by Grey. Tooke might have asked France to 
 succour John Bull, " since oppressed by the rod of a King and 
 a God, the cup of his misery's full." Grey and Fox would 
 not have welcomed such an army to England, 
 
Jacobin and Anti- Jacobin 49 
 
 " Whose shores are all lined with the friends of Reform. 
 Confiscation and murder attend in her train 
 With meek-eyed sedition, the daughter of Paine." 
 
 Grey's motions for Reform were too modest for Tooke and 
 too revolutionary for Fox. Yet all the Whigs are shown as 
 unanimous for " one grand Radical Reform " and as desiring 
 an army from France " to improve our corrupt constitution." 
 According to the New Morality the Whig in his 
 
 " reasoned view 
 Thy interest England ranks with thine Peru — 
 France at our doors he sees no danger nigh, 
 But heaves for Turkey's woes the impartial sigh, 
 A steady patriot of the world alone, 
 The friend of every country but his own." 
 
 Horne Tooke and Fox differed as much in cosmopolitan 
 and republican sympathies, as both did from Grey on Reform 
 yet the " Anti-Jacobin " makes them inseparable boon-com- 
 panions. The waters were out and the danger nigh, to 
 encourage Reform was to bore through the dyke, which stood 
 between us and the boundless flood of French principles. 
 Lafayette and de Stael are as infamous as Billaud-Varennes 
 and Carrier, Fox and Grey are as revolutionary as Thelwall, 
 who never blew the head off his pot of beer without wishing 
 it was that of a King. To say with Fox, that the Revolu- 
 tionists had acted foolishly but meant well, was the reverse of 
 true candour. 
 
 " Give me the avowed, the erect, the manly foe, 
 Bold I can meet perhaps can turn his blow ; 
 But of all plagues, good Heaven, Thy wrath can send, 
 Save, save, oh save me from the candid friend ! " 
 
 This policy of collective abuse skilfully attributed the worst 
 excesses of each individual or section to the whole party, and 
 the charges of a want of patriotism and a surfeit of extravag- 
 ance clung to the Whigs for a generation. 
 
 Mindful perhaps of the old Whig sarcasms against himself 
 Canning bespattered the Whig leaders with personal abuse in 
 a style worthy of Churchill or Smollett. Lansdowne is, with 
 cutting reference both to his well earned nickname of the 
 " Jesuit " and to his French principles, called " Nature's simple 
 child." Erskine whose egotism was a proverb, " at clubs and 
 taverns sweetly sings of self, while yawning Whigs attend, 
 self first last midst and without end." The Duke of Nor- 
 thumberland is reminded that his name is Smithson not 
 Percy, and both he and the Duke of Norfolk are covered with 
 
50 Life of Canning 
 
 ridicule for their somewhat shabby attempts to evade the 
 taxes upon powder and liveried servants. Fox, " the Catiline 
 of modern times," swears eternal vows to Home Tooke, in 
 company with his " Goose." This is Sir Robert Adair who 
 had written " Half a letter to demolish Burke." Amid an 
 extraordinary mixture of metaphors 
 
 " One luckless slip the meaning over strains , 
 And loads his blunderbuss with Bedford's brains." 
 
 " He transmutes," says a cruel comment, " the illustrious head 
 of the House of Russell into a metal, to which it is not for us 
 to say how near or how remote the affinity may have been." 
 Adair was sent by Fox on " half a mission " to Russia, which is 
 satirised in an Oriental Epistle from Bawba-dara-Adul-phoolah. 
 He had been a student at a German University, and feeling 
 a " great attraction for the fair sex," fell in love with a Pro- 
 fessor's daughter. As Rogero he therefore sings, 
 
 " There first for thee my passion grew 
 Sweet sweet Matilda Pottingen, 
 Thou wast the daughter to my Tu- 
 Tor Law Professor at the U- 
 Niversity of Gottingen." 
 
 Finally, Whitbread is not allowed to forget that he is the 
 son of a brewer, or the Duke of Bedford that a champion of 
 social equality cannot well be a landowner. When the 
 Jacobins appear 
 
 " they will vast sums advance. 
 The Land and Malt of Jacobin Finance." 
 
 Such extracts give the tone and character of the satire of 
 the day. England has had many other satirists but none 
 quite like those of the " Anti-Jacobin." Pope used a poisoned 
 dagger, Praed's gentle wit " ne'er carried a heart stain away 
 on its blade," but the satire of both was almost wholly social. 
 Byron and Shelley were too absorbed in their hatred of all 
 existing institutions to write political satire of more than a 
 vague and denunciatory character. Tom Moore's political 
 satires are among his happiest efforts, always melodious easy 
 and witty. But he is ever the literary man showing his skill 
 of fence. The " Anti-Jacobin " errs on the other side. As we 
 have seen, its personalities are abundant and coarse, yet they 
 have always a political meaning and effect. Its advocacy of 
 principles sometimes actually sinks into preaching. In 
 Dryden alone were united the highest literary art with true 
 political satire. But the " Anti-Jacobin " has a high literary 
 
Jacobin and Anti-Jacobin 51 
 
 value, and at its best combines genuine fun and humour with 
 biting wit and easy rollicking metres with polished phrases. 
 Even fastidious old Horace Walpole praised it and its author 
 Mr. Canning " a young man of allowed parts." No one who 
 ever read them will forget the "Knife-grinder" with its 
 ludicrous travesty of Southey's Sapphics or "the Song of 
 Rogero." Some of the imitations of Gray and Horace are 
 worth reading even now, when parodists rival the authors they 
 copy both in excellence and multitude. To the parodies of 
 Southey, Payne Knight and Darwin a still higher praise is 
 due, for it is through their sole agency that the originals are 
 Tithonus-like consumed by a cruel immortality. The " New 
 Morality" is the last effort of expiring classicism. By its 
 force, fire and epigrammatic skill it makes us forget the cold 
 and rigid forms, and monotonous cadences to which Pope 
 himself could not always give life. But apart from literature 
 the Anti-Jacobin is unique in its political influence. It is the 
 symbol and to some extent the cause of the changed attitude 
 of England to France. 
 
 " Must wit be found alone on falsehood's side. 
 Unknown to Truth, to Virtue unallied ? " 
 wrote Frere in the few lines he contributed to the " New 
 Morality," and felt therefore compelled to rank Gifford's 
 " Baviad " with the best work of Pope. Those personages 
 then known as " the Dons, the Highfliers and the Bigwigs," 
 who had screamed forth their shocked protests against the 
 Revolution, had inspired only ridicule and contempt. Scoffing 
 at the idea of a crusade and a war for our advantage. Fox has, 
 written : " Oh calumniated Crusaders, how rational and 
 moderate were your objects ! Oh tame and feeble Cervantes 
 with what a timid pencil and faint colours have you painted 
 the portrait of a disordered imagination ! " Sheridan too had 
 put forth all his powers of sarcasm, so that till now all the 
 wit and the ridicule had been on the Whig side. The nation, 
 already nervous, hysterical and anxious, was not encouraged 
 by the frenzied denunciations of Burke to regain sanity and 
 self-possession. It was needful not only to denounce but to 
 laugh at the Jacobins, to show that even if always terrible 
 they had never ceased to be ridiculous. " Right and Philo- 
 sophy," said Canning on March ist, 1799, "are the two sur- 
 names of tyranny and injustice in the French vocabulary of 
 freedom." The note of the " Anti-Jacobin " was 
 
 " Reason Philosophy Fiddledum Diddledum, 
 Peace and Fraternity Higgledy Piggledy." 
 
52 Life of Canning 
 
 The Friend of Humanity finds the English Knife-grinder 
 with no grievances, so he bursts into rage ; " kicks the Knife- 
 grinder, overturns his wheel and exit in a transport of universal 
 philanthropy and republican enthusiasm." In the roars of 
 laughter which greeted these sallies the English nation forgot 
 its terror and dismay. Highwaymen perished in England, 
 not because of a code which dripped with blood, but because 
 of the Beggars' Opera, and French principles suffered less 
 from the thunders of Burke than from the sneers of the " Anti- 
 Jacobin." They were to the Jacobins what Pascal's Letters 
 were to the Jesuits. 
 
 From a serious point of view the power and effect of 
 the "Anti-Jacobin" lay in its opposition to cosmopolitan 
 principles on grounds that flattered English pride. " Guard 
 we our own hearts and manlier virtues, but French in heart, 
 though Victory crown our brow, and England will be no 
 more." They upheld the insular doctrines of regulated and 
 balanced freedom, of the sacredness of property and pre- 
 scriptive rights. Following Burke, again they showed the 
 good in old customs and traditions in prejudices and even in 
 respectability. The complete reversal of existing systems 
 would end in despotism and defeat of the ends desired. Not 
 Reason but Experience must guide, abstract French theories 
 must yield to English practice. The Revolutionists' idea of 
 Reform was to sever the tree at the roots Burke feared even 
 to pluck off the dead leaves. Canning would have been satis- 
 fied with a little pruning. But with the progress of the war 
 he felt that for the security of Civilization and Society, limits 
 must be set to the progress of these doctrines and England 
 defended from the contagion of French principles. France 
 and its madmen were to be encircled in a ring of flame, until, 
 like the scorpion, seeing no escape they turned their venom 
 against themselves and destroyed one another. A passionate 
 admiration of Burke, "The mighty sea mark of these troubled 
 days," pervades the '• Anti-Jacobin " no less in the passages 
 most witty or ironical as in those indignant or solemn. 
 Indeed so apparent is his influence that, but for the irreverence 
 of imagining him without his purple robes, it might be said 
 that the " Anti-Jacobin " was Burke in a jester's motley and 
 spangles. 
 
 The extreme conservatism displayed by Canning in the 
 "Anti-Jacobin" held the germ of several errors. One of 
 these was the wholesale condemnation of any attempt at con- 
 stitutional reform or improvement, another the determination 
 
Jacobin and Anti-Jacobin 53 
 
 to preserve institutions less because tiiey were good than 
 because they were old. Again, no one wishes to absolve 
 Robespierre or Carnot or Tallien from the guilt of shedding 
 innocent blood, but the violence of the " Anti -Jacobin " was 
 illogical. To assume that they were the sole contrivers of the 
 misery and horrors of France and of Europe was an error, 
 like that of Rousseau, who said that every evil was due to 
 Government and the best remedy its destruction. The 
 deeper social influences, the unparalleled economic chaos, the 
 progress of the scientific spirit, the intrigues of the emigres, 
 the armed intervention of the stranger, all these were causes 
 independent of the influence of the Jacobin doctrinaires, 
 which lent force and savagery to the French Revolution. In 
 England the force of the agitators was but on the surface, in 
 Burke's grand phrase they were but the noisy grasshoppers 
 chirping in the field without disturbing the placid cattle. But 
 in France, agitation had its force and its impulse less from 
 individuals than from what Burke in a less elegant figure 
 described as " the swinish multitude." The cool reason of 
 Canning or of Burke would have seen that the success of 
 French principles depended as much on the conditions of the 
 country to which they appealed, as on the violence of the 
 appeal itself Neither would then have attached a supersti- 
 tious sanctity to the abuses of the British Constitution, or 
 imagined that the personal government of the King or the 
 existence of rotten boroughs in Cornwall were the two safe- 
 guards of English Liberty. Uneasy qualms of conscience 
 seem sometimes to have afiflicted Burke. " It is," said he in 
 his last years, " the hovering in the air of this tremendous mis- 
 chief that has made me an abettor and supporter of kings and 
 courts." Though Canning would never have erred so grossly 
 as Burke, who found ' all the elements of constitutional liberty 
 in the old French monarchy,' yet the lessons he drew from 
 this period coloured his whole future policy and life. Hence- 
 forth the Whig Reformers were to him but Jacobins in masks, 
 whose proposals struck at the balance of the Constitution and 
 shook the foundations of Society. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 The Pupil of Pitt— In and Out of Office 
 I 797- I 807 
 
 Burke had declared the restoration of the Bourbons to be 
 an indispensable preliminary to peace, but Canning followed 
 Pitt in requiring only proofs that the existing Government 
 was stable and firm. As early as 1795 when Prussia had aban- 
 doned the Coalition, Pitt had offered terms which the French 
 Directory had rudely rejected. That he was sincerely anxious 
 for peace is as undoubted as that the nature and continuance 
 of the war had overthrown all his anticipations. In 1796 
 further offers were made on the one indispensable condition 
 that Belgium should be restored to the Emperor. The 
 Archduke Charles had inflicted serious defeats on the French 
 in Germany, but the latter had been encouraged by the 
 secret co-operation of Prussia. More than all the marvellous 
 victories of Bonaparte in Italy had awakened the enthusiasm 
 of France, and the spoils of Lombardy had stimulated the 
 hopes and the avarice of the Directors. Finding it impossible 
 to isolate England from Austria, they dismissed Lord 
 Malmesbury in October, 1796. Early in that year Canning 
 had been appointed Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, but 
 his influence on the negotiations had been relatively small. 
 For the next two years he rarely stirred from his office taking 
 little exercise, toiling in London during the heats of summer,and 
 seldom speaking in Parliament. Under the tuition of Pitt and 
 Grenville (the Foreign Secretary) he made his first acquaint- 
 ance with administrative detail and with office, where his in- 
 dustry does much to explain his wonderful knowledge and 
 success in conducting his own foreign policy in the future. 
 
 In June, 1797, Pitt renewed diplomatic intercourse with 
 the Directory and despatched Lord Malmesbury to Lisle to 
 endeavour to arrange a peace. Incidentally, Canning became 
 
The Pupil of Pitt 55 
 
 the pivot of the whole negotiation, and to his tact and 
 patience was entrusted the difficult task of reconciling the 
 three or four divergent views of policy held by Pitt, Malmes- 
 bury, Grenville and the Cabinet at large. The autocratic 
 power of Pitt had been such as no premier ever exercised 
 before or since. In fact, the position of premier was not only 
 unknown to the constitutional theory and to pedants, but 
 equally so to practice and to his colleagues in the Cabinet. 
 Walpole had fallen, not as is generally believed merely 
 because defeated in Parliament, but because Newcastle and 
 his colleagues in the Cabinet resented his autocracy and did 
 nothing to influence the Lower House in his favour. Pitt, 
 with the support of King George, had succeeded in establishing 
 a supremacy over his colleagues in comparison to which that 
 of Walpole was mild. But to the Portland Whigs, who joined 
 the Ministry in 1794, such power vested in the hands of one 
 man was a novelty, and as objectionable as to the haughty 
 Grenville who wished to assert his independence of the 
 Prime Minister. Hence arose a method of conducting foreign 
 policy comparable only to that sinister system of double 
 correspondence, by which Louis XV. alternately betrayed or 
 supported his ministers. Grenville and Pitt suspected and 
 tried to counterwork one another. Pitt secretly instructed 
 Malmesbury to make peace even at the price of ceding the 
 Cape and Ceylon, a policy quite diiferent from that outlined 
 in the instructions of Grenville who wished to continue the 
 war and desired the negotiations to fail. Disputes in the 
 Cabinet were constant though we trust that Pitt "was not 
 doomed to hear the frequent inkstand whizzing past his ear," 
 a method of persuasion, says Canning, employed by Rewbell 
 in consultations of the Directory at this time. On July 20, 
 1797. Canning tells Lord Malmesbury that Grenville has 
 devised and carried a resolution at the Cabinet " to tie 
 up Pitt's tongue alone, whom he suspected of communicat- 
 ing with other persons, and fortifying himself with out-of- 
 door opinions against the opinions brought forward in 
 Council ; by those with whom he differed in his general 
 view of the negotiations." Canning was unjustly supposed 
 to be the pipe through which Pitt's information flowed to 
 the Press. But Pitt and Grenville were at least agreed 
 on the one point of preventing the interference of minor 
 members of the Cabinet. The resolution ordered that 
 Canning and Hammond should henceforth alone open and 
 decipher despatches from the seat of correspondence. Pitt 
 
56 Life of Canning 
 
 and Grenville arranged that all memoranda on foreign 
 policy for Cabinet circulation should be written in the ex- 
 ecrable hand of Hammond, which formed an unconscious 
 cipher to which it was hoped the ingenuity and patience of 
 the rest of the Cabinet would be unequal to finding the key. 
 Malmesbury was in future to send one despatch of vague 
 generalities for the Cabinet, which even if deciphered would 
 help little towards the formation of an opinion, and another 
 to Grenville containing important information. Against this 
 practice Canning remonstrated, and even when names and 
 details were withheld did his best to contribute the substance 
 and progress of the negotiations to the Cabinet, that there 
 might be " a chance of fair deliberation." 
 
 Seldom indeed has a young man been placed in a position 
 so difficult and delicate. Opening all the despatches to the 
 Cabinet and Grenville, whose secretary he was, he also received 
 from Lord Malmesbury extra official intelligence for the ear of 
 Pitt alone, to whom he was devoted. Replying in the official 
 and warlike despatches of Lord Grenville, he was induced by 
 Pitt to send private letters embodying and insisting on the 
 policy of peace. Malmesbury like all bold and successful 
 diplomatists was quite ready to transgress the letter of his in- 
 structions, more especially when perplexed by the mutually de- 
 structive policies of his two masters. Canning bore the burden 
 of interpretation, standing between both he endeavoured to be 
 loyal to both, and sometimes vanquished the impossible and 
 succeeded ; " Give us," he writes to Malmesbury, July 13, 1797, 
 " then something to show as an acquisition . . . but remember 
 what may be very splendid as an acquisition may be very 
 insufficient as a cause of quarrel ... we can break off upon 
 nothing but what will rouse us from sleep and stupidity 
 into a new life and action — ' what will create a soul under the 
 ribs of death ' — for we are now soulless and spiritless ; and 
 what would do this except the defence of Portugal or the 
 preservation of our integrity." The first sentence shows the 
 reasonable spirit of compromise, the readiness to make 
 concessions which distinguished Pitt, the rest the haughtiness 
 and the dauntless spirit of Grenville. 
 
 Canning had therefore to receive and answer three sets of 
 despatches, secret for the Cabinet, more secret for Grenville, 
 most secret for Pitt. Such mystery sometimes assumed the 
 air of stage-conspiracy. " I saw Brooks, the messenger," he 
 writes on July 27, "silent as a ghost, gliding by my bow- 
 window, and bringing 'tributary turbots' as well as most 
 
The Pupil of Pitt 5^ 
 
 secret despatches." From his letters to Mr. Legh we 
 know that his anxiety was almost insupportable, and he 
 complained "of the difficulty of keeping up the game." 
 He had indeed to pass over a bridge sharp as a razor, 
 with an abyss on either side of it. Everyone agreed that the 
 continuance of the negotiation had been made possible only 
 by his temper and tact. Pitt had already resolved that the 
 difference between him and Lord Grenville could only be settled 
 by the resignation of one or other, and as he afterwards told 
 Malmesbury, " it would have been Lord Grenville." Just at 
 this moment (Sept. 1797) came a coup d'etat devised by Bona- 
 parte and executed by Augereau, which reorganized the Direc- 
 tory, and broke off negotiation. As peace was on the point 
 of being secured with Austria at Campo Formio, the policy of 
 detaching members from the Coalition had succeeded, and 
 politeness to England was needless. For a moment a hope 
 lingered that the influence of Maret and Talleyrand, who 
 were to the Directory what Pitt was to Grenville, might 
 prevail. But this too flickered out. Lord Malmesbury received 
 his papers and the war was resumed. Canning and Ellis 
 vented their wrath, and filled up the time no longer wasted in 
 negotiations, in writing the " Anti-Jacobin." 
 
 During the years 1798- 1800 Canning was occupied in defend- 
 ing the policy of Pitt both at home and abroad, and with less 
 official work set about winning for himself fame both as orator 
 and debater. In 1799 he resigned his under-secretaryship, as 
 he had often threatened to do, doubtless chafing at the cold 
 haughtiness of his chief who despite his great ability, was on 
 his own confession incapable of managing or understanding 
 men. He became a member of the Board of Control over 
 which Dundas presided, and joint-paymaster to the Forces 
 (1800). He also accepted the post of Receiver-General of the 
 Alienation Office with a salary of £500 a year, a sinecure he 
 retained on quitting office in 1801. That Canning should be 
 compelled to take posts unequal to his fame and ability shows 
 how hardly the poor man then entered his kingdom of office. 
 Canning was aware of the prejudice against him in consequence 
 of his alleged defection from the Whigs. But here he found 
 a parallel without his excuses in Castlereagh, who had some- 
 what peculiarly changed his views. 
 
 Our manager he, who in Ireland was nurst 
 Sang ' Erin go bragh ' for the galleries first. 
 But finding Pitt's interest a much better thing 
 Changed his note of a sudden to 'God save the King'." 
 
 4 
 
5 8 Life of Canning 
 
 Yet Castlereagh though only a year older had been Irish 
 Secretary since 1797. On Nov. 28, 1799, Canning gave Lord 
 Boringdon his views on the question of office. He did not 
 desire to rise too high or too suddenly, but he protested that 
 Castlereagh and Grenville had received high honours before 
 his own age. More than their equal in ability he lacked only 
 a name, which like theirs would give him a hereditary title 
 to Cabinet rank. Yet without important office Canning had 
 more influence than most Cabinet Ministers between 1796- 
 180 1. Occasionally the sole, he was often the chief, confidant 
 of Pitt, who had the highest opinion of his talents. In i8o4(*) 
 Pitt sent to him a sketch of finance, and consulted him on 
 the advisability of continuing the war. The first financier 
 and statesman of the day takes advice, on questions of which 
 he should be the best judge in the world, from a young 
 man with whom he has quarrelled. He clearly thought 
 the sound judgment of his favourite pupil must be obtained 
 on this vital point, even though their confidences and 
 their intimacy were a shadow of what they once had been. 
 No panegyrist could have more extolled or enhanced the 
 ability of the youthful statesman. 
 
 On Dec. 11, 1798, Canning delivered a famous speecht 
 against resuming negotiations with France. Henceforth he 
 was in the front rank of orators, second only to Pitt on the 
 one side, and able to cope with Sheridan and even with Fox 
 on the other. In a formidable indictment he denounced the 
 French doctrines of universal freedom and fraternity, as 
 nothing but a disguise to mask universal dominion. He 
 exposed the hypocrisy of the Directory which, he said, 
 revenges on the Swiss the slaughter of the Burgundians a 
 thousand years before, while to conciliate the spirit of 
 Vercingetorix it "punishes the Pope for Caesar's crimes." 
 The system of client-republics by which France cloaked her 
 conquests was a pretence, and in their opposition to her 
 academic cruelties lay hope of salvation. " Are we to look for 
 filial attachment" he cried, "in the Cisalpine Republic whom 
 in preference to the others she appears to have selected as a 
 living subject in political anatomy ; whom she has delivered 
 up tied and bound, to a series of butchering, bungling 
 philosophical professors to distort and mangle and lop, and 
 
 * Malmesbury, iv. 324. Stratford — Redclifife's Recollections. 
 
 t Pitt called it ' one of the best ever heard on any occasion.' Auckland 
 Papers iv. 72, 
 
The Pupil of Pitt 59 
 
 stretch its limbs into all sorts of fantastical shapes and to hunt 
 through its palpitating frame the vital principle of republican- 
 ism ? " This passage electrified the House, which saw revived 
 in him something of the passion and fire of Burke. At the 
 news of Nelson's glorious victory on the Nile, he said, " Even 
 the vassal republics leapt in their chains. We must," he said, 
 "seek help from every quarter even from the Grand Signior, who 
 should not be rejected merely because he wears a long beard 
 and a long gown." At least such an alliance could not be 
 denounced by the Opposition, whose ' large and liberal system 
 of ethics ' embraced humanity and proclaimed all men brothers. 
 England can be precariously safe as long as there is no safety 
 for the rest of Europe. " Hoard up your safety for your own 
 use," says an honourable member (Mr. Tierney). " Lend a 
 portion of it to other nations that it may be returned to you 
 tenfold in the preservation and security of the world, is the 
 dictate of a larger and I think a sounder policy." 
 
 Canning had described with much wit in the " Anti-Jacobin " 
 the progress and the ambitious designs of Bonaparte in 
 
 Egypt- 
 
 " His army each day growing bolder and finer 
 With the Turcoman tribes he subdues Asia Minor 
 . . . and Bucharians and Afghans and Persians and Tartars, 
 Cholies the wretched Mogul in his grandmother's garters. 
 And will hang him to dry in the Luxemburg Hall 
 With the plunder of Carthage and spoils of Bengal." 
 
 On his return to France Bonaparte overturned the Directory 
 and made himself supreme by the famous coup d'etat of 18 
 Brumaire (Nov. 9, 1799), which in its immediate political 
 effects may rank as the most important revolution in the 
 whole of modern history, The news was a bitter disillusion- 
 ment to the Whigs who had now beheld their hero degraded 
 and sunk in the despot. Bonaparte had shown that Re- 
 volutions were not worth their price and that Humanity in 
 every age endured the same conditions of doubt and dis- 
 enchantment. Liberty had resulted in licence, and new dic- 
 tator was but old despot writ large. Full of this conviction 
 Canning writes thus to Lord Boringdon (Nov. 19, 1799). 
 " Huzza ! Huzza ! Huzza ! . . . Bonaparte the avowed 
 tyrant of his country is an object to be contemplated with 
 enthusiasm . . . Tell me not that he will make war with more 
 vigour or peace with more dexterity than the exploded 
 Directory have done ; I care not — war we can brave and from 
 peace I hope we shall have the spirit to save ourselves ; and 
 
6o Life of Canning 
 
 as to power, I would give France India to ensure her a 
 despotism and think the purchase a cheap one. No ! No ! 
 it is the thorough destruction of the principles of exaggerated 
 liberty — it is the lasting ridicule thrown upon all systems of 
 democratic equality — it is the galling conviction carried home 
 to the bawlers for freedom in this and every other country 
 that there never was nor will be nor can be, a leader of a mob 
 faction who does not mean to be the lord, and not the servant, 
 of the people. It is this that makes the name of Bonaparte 
 dear to me." Thus as always Canning attached most im- 
 portance to discrediting the moral influence of the Jacobins, 
 and rejoiced that the prophesies of Burke and the sneers oi 
 the " Anti-Jacobin " had come bitterly true. 
 
 Bonaparte lost no time in negotiating for peace and, for that 
 purpose, addressed a letter directly to King George. It 
 was answered by an oiificial declaration, drawn up by Canning, 
 which took no notice of his letter and which was written in 
 the third person and in English. " I think," wrote Canning to 
 Lord Boringdon, " the use of our own English native tongue 
 at all times and under all circumstances right, in the present 
 instance peculiarly politic and in answer to the letter which 
 has produced it unavoidable, and I pray that it may never be 
 disused again." That he should have been employed to draw 
 up this declaration is another of the many testimonies to his 
 ability and skill, for he had resigned the Foreign Office in 
 March, 1799, and this letter was written on Jan. 3, 1800. The 
 negotiation failed, not only because of Bonaparte's diplomatic 
 indiscretions, but because the Ministry had no confidence in 
 the duration of his government or good faith. Jacobin and 
 republican ideals were indeed dead, but the enthusiasms and 
 forces they had created still lived. " It is only I who can tame 
 them," said Napoleon, when he heard at St. Helena of renewed 
 Jacobin revolts. Orson proved useful to Valentine, and the 
 tamer of a wild beast has often put its native strength and 
 ferocity at his service. Even so the marvellous genius of one 
 man united the savage Jacobin energy with all the other forces 
 of France in the accomplishment of his own limitless ambitions. 
 
 On February 10, 1801, Pitt announced that he intended to 
 resign, the ostensible cause being his failure to include 
 Catholic Emancipation in the Act for the Legislative Union 
 with Ireland. The King had known nothing of this project 
 till Loughborough betrayed the secret, when he declared 
 himself violently opposed to the design. It had been 
 
The Pupil of Pitt 6i 
 
 hotly debated in the Cabinet, and with the King against 
 him, Pitt could not hope for his usual ascendancy. "Had I 
 remained I should have been on a totally different footing," 
 he avowed to Canning. He sought no interview or explanation 
 with the King, and even so enthusiastic an admirer as Lord 
 Ashbourne admits that his purpose was but feebly maintained 
 and avowed. With great and noble ambitions, Pitt un- 
 doubtedly loved power and adored Downing Street. To 
 relinquish office without remonstrance for a single cause, for 
 which his resignation had not been demanded, was not the 
 best way to serve that cause or to vindicate his character. 
 Addington, appointed his successor, had at first declared him- 
 self a mere place-filler. Pitt did not formally lay down the seals 
 till March 14, and meanwhile had declared himself ready to ab- 
 andon the Catholic cause. On March 8, Canning wrote to him 
 showing that no cause prevented his resumption of office. But 
 pride led Pitt to desire entreaty, and he stooped to suggest that 
 a peer should use his privilege, and advise the Sovereign to re- 
 open negotiations. A second attempt somewhat hasty and 
 ill-advised, in which Canning addressed himself to Addington, 
 also broke down. The great statesman, though he had 
 avowedly abandoned the principle which he alleged as the 
 cause of his retirement, refused to resume office apparently 
 from motives of personal delicacy or pride. He had expressed 
 a wish that his retirement should not affect his friends. Lord 
 Chatham found his attachment to Pitt compelled him to 
 remain. " Others " says Charles Ellis very bitterly, aiming 
 especially at Eldon, " felt their friendship to Pitt and their 
 duty to. their country particularly and more strongly call upon 
 them to take office in support of their country at the crisis 
 when he deserts it." As for several others, among whom was 
 Canning, " when Pitt the only man in their opinion fit to be 
 Minister went out they followed his example." It is super- 
 fluous to point out that Pitt's advice did nothing to further, and 
 everything to hinder, the cause he had professed to espouse. 
 
 But his whole conduct is inexplicable on the simple ground 
 usually assumed. In the beginning, Canning was more deeply 
 committed than Pitt himself to the Catholic Cause, and unlike 
 him had never offered to abandon it at the finish. Yet Pitt 
 when pressed by Canning told him that he regretted his 
 (Canning's) resignation on public grounds, though he took it 
 as a mark of personal regard. No person who resigns on 
 behalf of a principle would reprove another person, whose 
 ijonour was more engaged, for following his example. The 
 
62 Life of Canning 
 
 real cause is to be found in the situation abroad. In June, 
 1 800, Bonaparte had won the great victory of Marengo over 
 the Austrian forces in Italy. When Moreau followed with a 
 great victory amid the snows of a December night at Hohen- 
 linden, peace between Austria and France was only a question 
 of weeks. Pitt's pride and expressed opinions pledged him to 
 continue the war but prudence whispered that a respite, how- 
 ever brief, would enable England to recruit her exhausted 
 strength. Both ministers and people were in the deepest 
 despondence.* " Do people hold up their heads ? " wrote 
 Canning to Frere (Sept. 16, 1800) in high indignation. " Does 
 the Cabinet meet by daylight ? Who kicks them individu- 
 ally as they go up into the Cabinet- Room ? " It is clear that 
 Pitt desired Addington to make peace, whilst he himself 
 retired just at the moment when he knew Austria had been 
 forced to abandon the English Alliance. Hookham Frere, 
 on Canning's authority, says, " He (Pitt) therefore determined 
 to leave to other hands the credit of making and if possible 
 of maintaining such a peace." " God forgive Pitt for the part 
 he has had in this peace," wrote Canning. 
 
 How could Pitt, in face of his indignant repudiation of 
 peace in August, 1 800, and his avowals both old and new that 
 he would never leave the Netherlands in French hands, even 
 listen to terms of peace to which another might consent ? It 
 is deeply significant that Grenville, the inflexible opponent of 
 peace, resigned. Dundas indeed blurted out the truth to 
 Malmesbury, very unadvisedly and probably unintentionally ; 
 " If these new ministers stay in and make peace it will only 
 smooth matters the more for us afterwards," said he. At least 
 it was a common charge of the day, that Pitt's Catholic zeal 
 was but the pretext of his retirement. It is supported by the 
 recorded contemporary evidence of Canning and Dundas, his 
 two greatest confidants up till the very moment of his fall.f 
 Lord Malmesbury, Lord Auckland, Lord Pelham and Hook- 
 ham Frere, who knew the inner workings of the politics of the 
 day, all thought the same. To these we must add the| judg- 
 ment of foreign diplomats, which is always supposed to 
 anticipate that of posterity. Nor need this action seem a 
 stain on Pitt's memory, for he did his best for his small 
 
 * Quoted from Miss Testing's Hookham Frere and his Friends, 
 t V. Malmesbury IV. 109 et seqq. Frere's letters passim. 
 + See the letters of Vansittart (Ambassador to Denmark) to Hawkes- 
 bury Foreign Sec. 5 March 1801. 
 B. M. Add. MSS. 31, 233. Sorel also holds this view, 
 
The Pupil of Pitt 63 
 
 personal following. His main support had always been in the 
 Government boroughs, whose members mechanically followed 
 all reigning ministers. As an individual he wished to pass 
 from the Government, and this was what his followers could 
 not understand and what his alleged motives obscured. His 
 conduct was not absolutely correct, but it is to be pardoned 
 by anyone acquainted with the mazy labyrinths and tortuous 
 windings of politics. He had no real party obligations to 
 consider, and might sacrifice much for national ends which 
 his resignation might promote. Perhaps he alone among 
 politicians loved party and office less and country more. 
 
 It was in vain that Canning endeavoured to draw Achilles 
 from his tent. He wrote a letter to Pitt bidding him awake 
 and resume the Government. After some delay Pitt replied 
 on 20th April, 1801, in a letter in which severe reproof was 
 mingled with a kind of paternal tenderness and a wish ex- 
 pressed that their political differences would not interrupt 
 their private intimacy. " I considered my intercourse with 
 Pitt as closed for ever," wrote Canning to Hookham Frere on 
 July 12. Pitt must have felt this separation deeply, for he 
 took the kindest interest in Canning. A man to the world 
 austere and forbidding, Pitt in reality possessed the warmest 
 feelings and the kindest heart. But a kind of awkward 
 reserve and a sense of official dignity made him keep most 
 men at a distance. Till he knew Canning his only real friends 
 had been Wellesley, Dundas, and Wilberforce. Of these the 
 former was now in India, Dundas had too much of the coarse 
 fibre of a man of business and of the world, while Wilber- 
 force sometimes wearied him with his didactic and importunate 
 piety. Canning was the wittiest of men and the nicest of 
 scholars, and to him Pitt had opened all his heart. He had 
 assumed the attitude of a guardian and a father, and Canning 
 in return had loved him as a son. Instinctively feeling that 
 he was now no longer in his confidence Canning uttered bitter 
 words to Frere. He complained of " confidence just enough 
 to mislead and not enough to guide," and of "a want of 
 candour" in Pitt which had delivered him "as an unreserved 
 sacrifice to Addington." He shows a quite childish delight 
 when he finds that his own predictions about peace have been 
 truer than those of Pitt. Later in the year a reconcilation 
 was patched up and Pitt was present with the Princess of 
 Wales at the christening of Canning's first son. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Canning stayed at Walmer Castle with Pitt, who fell 
 ill and was nursed by them with great tenderness. The 
 
64 Life of Canning 
 
 sphinx-like statesman was privately grateful but politically 
 unresponsive, and the harmony was as yet incomplete. On 
 May 25, 1802, Pitt was induced to preside at a dinner in- 
 augurating the " Pitt Club." This was entirely the work of 
 Canning, and a number of aiifiliated institutions sprung up 
 throughout the country on its model. It was for this 
 inaugural ceremony that Canning composed those admirable 
 verses "The Pilot that weathered the storm." Frere has 
 preserved a most interesting verse which is much altered in 
 the published editions ; — 
 
 ' And oh if again the next tempest should rise, 
 
 The dawning s of peace should fresh darkness deform, 
 
 * When we turn to thy hopeless retirement our eyes, 
 
 We shall long for the ' Pilot who Weathered the Storm.' 
 
 All this time Canning was using every effort along with 
 Lord Malmesbury, Ellis, and a few others to drive Addington 
 from office. That worthy though his abilities were particularly 
 modest soon conceived himself to be a person of importance. 
 No longer a place holder he aspired to be a great Minister. 
 He had a following among old-fashioned Tories, as he pro- 
 fessed to be a safe man. " At last we've got a government 
 without any of those confounded men of genius," chuckled 
 one old lord. To Canning it seemed absurd that this medi- 
 ocrity, the " Doctor " as he was called from the circum- 
 stance of his father having been physician to Chatham, 
 should keep Pitt from office. " Pitt," said he, " is to Ac^ding- 
 ton, as London is to Paddington." He wrote of Addington 
 as " the Pilot who moored us in peace." Squibs and verses 
 flowed in endless number from his pen, but since he never 
 acknowledged them the witty production of any hack-writer 
 was attributed to him. He ridiculed the man of modest 
 talents 
 
 " With moderate measures gently purging 
 Ills that prey on Britain's weal," 
 
 When the Government prepared some defences for the 
 Thames Canning exclaimed, 
 
 " If blocks can the nation deliver 
 Two places are safe from the French ; 
 The first is the mouth of the river 
 The second the Treasury Bench." 
 
 Also he recommended that 
 
 " That ponderous head, which ne'er presumed to think, 
 But England tottered on perdition's brink." 
 
 "This line restored by Frere — v. Festing's Hookham Frere. 
 
The Pupil of Pitt 65 
 
 should be used for purposes of naval defence. In a vision he 
 sees some of Bonaparte's flotilla "wrecked on the Doctor's 
 OS frontis, and others foundering on his occiput." As a final 
 extract we may give this ; 
 
 " Happy Britains guardian Gander, 
 
 To rescue from the invading Gaul 
 
 Her ' commerce, credit. Capital,' 
 
 While Rome's great goose could save alone 
 
 One Capitol — of senseless stone." 
 
 His pen was the more active because as he held a govern- 
 ment pocket borough, he felt that he should abstain as far as 
 possible from speaking in Parliament. These attacks probably 
 harmed Canning as much as Addington himself They may 
 have brought it about that when the " Doctor " spoke in the 
 House* " no one listened but to laugh at him." But in the 
 very beginning, according to Mr. Creevey, the ministry was 
 " feeble beyond all powers of caricaturing . . . and supported 
 only by that great mass of persons who always support all 
 ministers, but who are ashamed to applaud these." 
 
 In France the politician who is ridiculed and in England 
 the politician who ridicules is lost. Canning acquired a 
 reputation for quizzing which injured any appreciation of his 
 more solid qualities. His assaults seemed mainly personal 
 and dictated less by his passionate desire for Pitt's return 
 than his own wish for office. But that his objection to the 
 ministry was political is clear. When the peace of Amiens 
 was made he wrote passionately, " I would have cut off" my 
 right hand rather than signed that treaty." That he really 
 feared the continuance of the ministry portended national 
 disaster, is beyond doubt. On Oct. 8, 1802, he writes to 
 Frere,t " with such champions as Bonaparte and the Doctor on 
 either side this country has not a fair chance of being kept 
 on its legs." Canning wrote letter after letter to Pitt and 
 in Nov., projected a plan of a Round Robin to be signed by 
 influential men, which should request Addington to resign. 
 Lord Mulgrave betrayed the scheme to Pitt who vetoed it, 
 to Canning's great disgust. On Dec. 8, 1802, Canning 
 delivered a vigorous speech denouncing the conduct of the 
 ministry and their inept diplomacy in the peace of Amiens. 
 Pronouncing a panegyric on the amazing ascendant of 
 the genius of Bonaparte and its danger to England, he de- 
 clared he preferred a Man to all Measures for opposing 
 him. " One great commanding spirit is worth them all." 
 
 * From Creevey Papers, vol. i. 
 
 t From Festing's Hookham Frere and his Friends. 
 
66 Life of Canning 
 
 But Pitt was still enigmatic and inscrutable, not sorry to 
 see Addington attacked, but too dignified to approve the 
 method or the violence. At the end of February and the 
 beginning of March, 1803, Addington feeling his weakness, 
 negotiated with Pitt but absurdly proposed that they should 
 serve together under Lord Chatham. Canning soon rejoiced 
 to find Pitt " in a temper with Addington to which mine was 
 mildness." But he still complains to Frere of " good 
 opportunities romantically lost and ill ones vexatiously sought 
 for to repair them."* " I see no reason why A's administration 
 should not hobble on and outlast the country. And this is 
 the more provoking as I do really think there are means and 
 hopes of raising the Country to a pitch of glory and power 
 such as it has never attained before, if the administration were 
 in able hands." In May, 1804, war was again declared and in 
 June the question came before the House. Pitt, to evade 
 direct approval or censure of the Ministry, moved the ad- 
 journment. He was defeated by a majority of 277, Canning 
 regretfully voting against him for the first time in his life. 
 Later in the year, as the gravity of the crisis increased, Pitt 
 began to approach Fox, and united with him in opposition 
 to the Ministry. Early in 1804 the ministerial majority 
 sank to 37 and Addington resigned. The King sent for 
 Pitt but as he refused to admit Fox into the Ministry the 
 Grenvilles would not take office. Hardly a name of note 
 besides that of Castlereagh and Lord Melville (Dundas) 
 was to be found in Pitt's Cabinet. Weakened as he 
 was Pitt turned in January, 1805, to seek the aid of Add- 
 ington, who was created Lord Sldmouth and included in 
 the Ministry, a circumstance which nearly produced Can- 
 ning's resignation of his small post, the Treasurership of 
 the Navy. On the policy of Pitt during his second ministry 
 Canning had little influence, being no longer in his confidence, 
 though towards the close of 1805 Pitt had resolved to admit 
 him to the Cabinet. The time was crowded with great events 
 which weighed heavily on the Prime Minister. The projected 
 invasion of England had indeed been foiled, and as Canning 
 wrote Bonaparte had 
 
 " O'er England's seas his new dominions planned 
 While the red bolt yet flamed in Nelson's hand." 
 
 But the great Austrian defeats at Ulm and Austerlitz 
 followed, and Europe lay at the feet of Napoleon. Tra- 
 
 * Quoted from Festing's Hookham Frere and his Friends. 
 
The Pupil of Pitt 67 
 
 falgar was no compensation to Pitt who thought only 
 of the general interests of Europe. The impeachment and 
 disgrace of his dear friend Melville, had shaken and en- 
 feebled a frame- already worn out with illness and anxiety. 
 The disasters to the Coalition were the final blow. During 
 the third week of January, 1806, Charles Ellis wrote two 
 hurried notes to Hookham Frere telling him of the dangerous 
 illness of Pitt and bidding him hasten to Canning's side to 
 comfort him. In * Frere's correspondence is to be found a 
 pathetic scrap of paper with the date of January 22nd. 
 Canning begins by discussing some papers which Frere 
 had sent him for inspection. Suddenly he breaks off and 
 exclaims passionately ; — " But five hours dead — nay not 
 five not so much and to be mentioned already as a fact — 
 alas!" 
 
 Few will question the grave and majestic eulogy pronounced 
 by Canning in Parliament on Feb. 3, 1806. " That brilliant 
 luminary, whether its dawn was clouded or its meridian 
 splendour obscured, had held a course glorious for the country 
 and worthy to call forth its admiration and gratitude." One 
 of the greatest of financiers and parliamentary leaders England 
 ever produced, Pitt had shown himself possessed of political 
 purity and independence at a time when his position depended 
 almost entirely on the corrupt influences of the Crown. " Dis- 
 pensing for near twenty years the favours of the Crown," wrote 
 Canning in his epitaph, " he lived without ostentation and died 
 poor." His liberal schemes of reform in commercial and 
 domestic policy were checked by the French Revolution to the 
 lasting injury of his Country. Without the genius of a great 
 war-minister he had shown great courage and inflexible 
 resolve in his resistance to the French Revolution. The Con- 
 vention had set a price on his head and by a decree pronounced 
 " Le Monstre Pitt I'ennemi du genre humain." Its orators 
 declared that the depreciation of assignats had been caused by 
 his sinister measures which had flooded France with thousands 
 of forged and valueless imitations manufactured in England. 
 The Coalitions were built up by his guineas, every traitor to 
 the Republic carried his gold in his pocket. Such fictions 
 amused the Parisian mob but the real truth had another 
 aspect. The policy of subsidizing Continental armies and 
 conquering France in the Indies had been successful under 
 Chatham. But Frederic the Great had fought for his king- 
 dom and his life. The chief members of Pitt's Coalitions 
 
 * Festing's Hookham Frere and his Friends. 
 
68 Life of Canning 
 
 had their eyes on Poland and Turkey as well as on France. 
 Frederic William of Prussia took Pitt's money, used it to 
 conquer his share of Poland and made peace with France. 
 Catherine would not intervene until too late, whilst as for 
 Austria, 
 
 " Her history nought repeats 
 But broken leagues and subsidized defeats." 
 
 That this policy of subsidy was a failure cannot be denied and 
 Canning himself, even before he became Foreign Secretary, 
 liad deemed it unsatisfactory. Much more then must it 
 increase our appreciation of Pitt when he could declare his 
 intense veneration and love for that great name, and " defy 
 ingenuity .... to trace any circle of greatness from which 
 Mr. Pitt shall be excluded." In one respect Pitt was great as 
 no other English statesman has been, in the legacy which he 
 bequeathed to his country of youthful statesmen whom he had 
 trained and inspired. Castlereagh, Canning, Wellesley, Liver- 
 pool, and in a sense Grenville were his most famous political 
 descendants, representing the different aspects of his policy 
 and mind. Servile imitation, obstinately pursued in the face 
 of new conditions is often the most insincere form of insult, 
 and to this Canning unlike the rest never stooped. He was 
 to Pitt what Vandyke was to Rubens or Giotto to Cimabue. 
 The favourite pupil, by the inspiration of his own genius, learnt 
 as much from the weakness as from the strength of the master. 
 
 With Pitt's death the Ministry broke up and Canning's 
 " political allegiance was buried in his grave." The Ministry 
 of All the Talents succeeded, which included such incongruous 
 elements as a Lord Chief Justice in the Cabinet, Fox and 
 Sidmouth, Erskine^and Grenville, Windham and Grey. Gren- 
 ville tried to detach some of Pitt's friends and offered 
 splendidly to Canning who remained steady and from principle. 
 He proved himself far their most dangerous opponent in 
 debate, and happily compared their gigantic professions and 
 dwarfish performance to a building in the style of Gothic 
 architecture. " It is only remarkable for its huge windows that 
 exclude the light and the narrow passages that lead to 
 nothing." Sometimes his conduct was purely factious as when 
 he criticized the Slavery Abolition Bill, saying, " it had taxed 
 the ingenuity of man to frame a measure for that purpose with 
 which he could not agree." One squib of the period may 
 perhaps be attributed to him, though after this he certainly 
 abjured all direct connection with the Press. At the age of 
 
The Pupil of Pitt 69 
 
 twenty-five Lord Henry Petty became Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, a result wholly due to his rank and social posi- 
 tion. He is termed, 
 
 " Illustrious Roscius of the State 
 New breeched and harnessed for Debate.'' 
 
 Nor is the " Doctor " and the peace of Amiens forgotten ; 
 
 " Oh can thy cloak of Amiens staff, 
 Once laughed to scorn by Blue and Buff, 
 Hide thee from Windham's jeers ?" 
 
 On the death of Fox the Ministry lost its greatest Talent, 
 equal in weight and in worth to the nine others united. 
 Granville made despairing overtures to Canning, which he 
 rejected with disdain. The King and the Ministry quarrelled 
 with and deceived one another on the thorny subject of 
 Catholic Relief, and Grenville was dismissed. The Duke of 
 Portland formed a Ministry including Perceval Hawkesbury 
 and Castlereagh. Canning was offered a choice between the 
 Admiralty and Foreign Office and after some hesitation chose 
 the latter. The Whigs and the Addingtonians foamed with 
 rage at this appointment. " We shall see if a nation is to be 
 saved by schoolboy jokes and doggerel rhymes by affronting 
 petulance and by the tones and gestures of Mr. Pitt. When 
 he (Canning) is jocular he is strong, when he is serious he is 
 like Samson in a wig." Thus wrote Sydney Smith voicing an 
 opinion undoubtedly too common at this time. But the future 
 was to show that it was well indeed for England, that at this 
 crisis her fame and her fortune were entrusted to a statesman 
 so high-souled and great-hearted as Canning. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 Canning and Napoleon 
 1807-9 
 
 Before he had accepted the Foreign Office, Canning had 
 spoken of the struggle in which England was engaged, as one 
 on which the fate of the world might depend. Even the 
 Whigs could not suspect levity in such an utterance, and still 
 less could they find it in his resolute attitude towards 
 Napoleon. Within four months of his accession to power his 
 vigour was shown in a stroke of policy which did much 
 towards deciding the destiny of England, and to which our 
 history can bring few comparisons in audacity and none in 
 dramatic interest. Since the death of Pitt the power of the 
 French Emperor had increased till it overshadowed all Europe. 
 In March, 1806, he had induced Prussia to declare war 
 against Britain by the cession of Hanover and the menace of 
 immediate war. Within a month he treacherously opened 
 negotiations for peace with Fox, on the basis of the restora- 
 tion of the Electorate. Fox soon became convinced of his 
 insincerity and renewed the war. In August, the perfidy of 
 Napoleon was revealed to Frederic William of Prussia, whose 
 wrath and suspicions were awakened to the highest degree. 
 He sent the keenest remonstrances to Paris, trusting that 
 diplomacy might avert the threatened war. But the puny 
 arts of the Cabinet of Berlin availed little against a pro- 
 founder craft, and the lustre which yet gilded the Prussian 
 arms was extinguished on the field of Jena. Napoleon 
 entered Berlin in triumph and announced to the world that 
 he had avenged the defeat of Rossbach, when he carried away 
 the sword which lay upon the tomb of the Great Frederic. 
 The valour and the greatness of Prussia seemed to have been 
 interred in the tomb at Potsdam, and the strongest fortresses 
 were yielded at the first summons to the mere terror of 
 
Canning and Napoleon yi 
 
 Napoleon's name. So triumphant a progress increased the 
 demands and the ambitions of a conqueror, whose armies ap- 
 proached the shores of the Baltic within a month from the 
 day of Jena. 
 
 Lord Howick, who succeeded Fox as England's Foreign 
 Secretary in September, 1 806, had at first been unable to grasp 
 or to interpret the shifting movements which took place upon 
 the continent. Deeply suspicious of a power, whose conduct 
 since 1789 had been consistent only in its perfidy and selfish- 
 ness, he had not discerned either Prussia's peril or England's 
 opportunity.' But ministers,' said Canning, ' had begun to see 
 there was something like a war between France and Prussia by 
 the trifling circumstance that the Prussian army was annihi- 
 lated.' Nor can much praise be given to the military or naval 
 dispositions of this government so overweighted with talent. 
 Expeditions had started for the distant goals of Alexandria, 
 Buenos Ayres and Constantinople, but, as Canning had said, 
 the largest fleet had sailed from the Downs only to make the 
 port of Plymouth, the largest army had been frozen up at 
 Uxbridge. Never would aid have been more effective or 
 more timely than at this moment, when an alliance of the 
 enemies of Napoleon was in the making. The Czar had met 
 the King of Prussia, fallen on his neck, wept over him, and in 
 a fit of sentimental emotion sworn to stand or die by his side. 
 The chivalrous King of Sweden had cast in his lot with an 
 alliance, on which success at first appeared to smile. In 
 February, 1807, the hitherto invincible Napoleon fought a 
 bloody and indecisive action, at Eylau, where he lost a large 
 number of men, and a larger portion of fame. Had England 
 now sent strong reinforcements, this advantage might have 
 been pursued and the alliance cemented. Dantzic and 
 Colberg still protracted their heroic resistance, and delivering 
 forces might have struck at the French communications, and 
 even fought a successful rearguard action with the main army. 
 Poetic justice would have been satisfied if the modern 
 Charlemagne had paid for his assumption of the title, by 
 undergoing a defeat equal to that of Roncesvalles. 
 
 With every motive for prompt action, Howick still hesi- 
 tated whilst Napoleon reorganized the forces shattered at 
 Eylau. But Canning had no such doubts, and within a 
 fortnight of his accession to office, had won the Cabinet to 
 his views, and decided to despatch a fleet and an army to the 
 Baltic. But the lack of foresight displayed by the late 
 Ministry was again in evidence. Count Woronzow, who was 
 
72 Life of Canning 
 
 at least an impartial witness, wrote on June 26, 1807, to Sir 
 Robert Wilson * ; 'if the expedition of the troops for the 
 continent has been delayed, the fault is not with the actual 
 ministry, as no one here (London) merits the injustice of 
 that blame. Under . . . Pitt there were always about two 
 hundred vessels hired and ready for use as transports . . . 
 there were always regiments prepared to start in a few days. 
 The Foxites sent back (to their owners) the transports hired 
 by Mr. Pitt.' Whilst the lack of transports delayed the 
 expedition, Napoleon advanced to Friedland and ended the 
 campaign by a brilliant victory over the united forces of 
 Prussia and Russia. Peace was inevitable, and on the 25th 
 June, the Czar and Napoleon had their first conference on a 
 raft moored in the Niemen near the town of Tilsit. Alex- 
 ander was completely hypnotised by the magnetic influence 
 of Napoleon, though not a month before he had spoken of 
 him at a public table as a madman and a tyrant. The treaty 
 of Tilsit was signed in the first week of July, and so abject 
 was the Czar's submission that its secret articles were but 
 sketched out at the interview. A most dangerous power was 
 thus left to Napoleon of completing or evading them accord- 
 ing to his own will after his return to Paris. Of these secret 
 provisions, which have recently been discovered and published, 
 one has for us the most transcendant importance : — ' If 
 England did not mitigate the severity of her orders in 
 Council, and restore to France her maritime conquests since 
 1805 by December ist, the two Emperors agreed to summon 
 the three Courts of Lisbon, Copenhagen, and Stockholm to 
 close their ports to the English and declare war against her, 
 that one of the three courts refusing shall be treated as an 
 enemy.' The whole principle of the treaty was that Russia 
 and France in alliance should endeavour to compass the ruin 
 of England, by putting pressure on neutral states to force 
 them eventually into open war with her. 
 
 On November 21st, 1806, Napoleon had inaugurated the 
 famous Continental system by the issue of the Berlin Decree. 
 This forbade all the allies of France to enter into any com- 
 mercial intercourse with Great Britain and her colonies, and 
 enforced the confiscation of all merchandise of British origin. 
 The immediate effect was to make the attitude of the two 
 neutral and maritime powers of Denmark and Portugal of 
 
 * Brit. Mus., Ad. MS. 30, 147. A. Woronzow was the Russian Ambas- 
 sador in London. 
 
Canning and Napoleon ^t, 
 
 vital importance. Nelson's great victory at Copenhagen in 
 1 80 1 had increased the distrust and hatred of Denmark 
 towards England. The Danes had hastened to replace their 
 destroyed fleet, and had conspired at reprisals on British 
 shipping. A report, written by Captain Dunbar in December, 
 1806, and forwarded to the British Government, directly 
 asserted that the preparations in the Danish docks of trans- 
 port stores and ships could only be intended for a war with 
 England. This view was, in point of fact, untrue. Canning 
 made careful inquiries on the subject, but assurances did not 
 reach him until too late. The Danish attitude towards 
 Napoleon was also calculated to arouse suspicion, for they 
 made no public protest against the Continental system, but 
 most violently remonstrated against England's declaration 
 that all French ports were in a state of blockade, and that 
 she therefore intended to search all neutral vessels. England's 
 measures were tyrannical enough, but compared to the 
 French decrees, they were mild and just ; and Napoleon after- 
 wards declared his intention of treating as an enemy any 
 neutral which allowed England to inflict such outrages upon 
 her vessels. On March 17th, Lord Ho wick had written to 
 Mr. Rist, the Danish ambassador in London, and declared 
 that, " if Danish neutrality consists in mere assertion and . . . 
 remonstrances against England, and in the most unqualified 
 acquiescence in every extravagant demand of the enemy, . . . 
 the king . . . would take such measures as may be necessary 
 to secure his own honour and his country's welfare against 
 injury, which must necessarily arise from a continuance of 
 such conduct.'' 
 
 In diplomatic language this was almost equivalent to a threat 
 of war. Mr. Rist continued his complaints and on May 26th 
 Canning wrote to Garlike, England's ambassador at Copen- 
 hagen, to ascertain if Mr. Rist represented His Government, 
 declared that in the question of right His Majesty would 
 never yield, and that a repetition of Rist's demands would 
 produce his dismissal. Garlike wrote back mentioning the 
 extreme fear of France entertained by Denmark now that 
 Bernadotte and his army were approaching Holstein, and 
 detailing certain rumours of Napoleon's designs. On July 
 1 6th Canning wrote instructions to Brook Taylor, who had 
 replaced Garlike, bidding him reassure the Danish minister as 
 to the presence of the British fleet in the Baltic, as it was 
 not intended as a menace to Denmark, but merely needful 
 to co-operate with the King of Sweden and protect British 
 
 5 
 
74 Life of Canning 
 
 reinforcements. The events of the next few days gave this 
 despatch a singularly ironical turn. On July 22nd, in a 
 despatch marked " most secret," Canning wrote again. 
 " Intelligence reached me yesterday, directly from Tilsit, that 
 at an interview between the Emperor of Russia and Bonaparte 
 on the 24th and 25th of last month, the latter brought forward 
 a proposal for a maritime league against Great Britain, to 
 which the accession of Denmark was represented by Bonaparte 
 to be as certain as it was essential." Canning knew little 
 of the treaty of Tilsit and its secret articles, but had received 
 this report of the conversation on the raft in the Niemen, which 
 embodied their substance. He also believed that the Danish 
 ' naval force was already within the grasp of Bonaparte, and 
 destined by him to convey his invading armies to the shores of 
 Great Britain and Ireland.' With Canning action clung to the 
 skirts of thought. He saw that the promptest decision and 
 the most feverish energy alone could defeat Napoleon's 
 design. King and Cabinet under his influence took a speedy 
 decision, and on July 28th the long delayed expedition set 
 forth under the command of Gambler. The total number of 
 ships had been raised to eighty, and it may safely be said that 
 no more powerful armada ever left our shores. On board was 
 Mr. Jackson, the newly appointed plenipotentiary, who carried 
 in his pocket two alternative proposals of alliance with Den- 
 mark. * England offered to defend Denmark against attack 
 both by sea and land, and to share with her any conquests 
 she might make. But Denmark must hand over her fleet so 
 that it might be completely under British control. England 
 would pay £100,000 for its use during the war, at the close of 
 which she solemnly promised to restore the fleet in a con- 
 dition equal to that in which she received it. Possession of 
 the fleet was defined as the ' one main indispensable object.' 
 So great was the peril that Canning wrote, ' no time should be 
 lost. . . . and the actual transference of the fleet must take 
 place even before the formal notification of the treaty.' 
 
 These last instructions may have hampered Jackson, but 
 he seems to have prematurely disclosed the real object of his 
 mission, and so offered Denmark an alliance at the cannon's 
 mouth. Canning had specially impressed on him his desire 
 'to spare the feelings as well as the interests of Denmark,' 
 and suggested that if necessary the fleet should be handed 
 over and the treaty concluded with the appearance of 
 compulsion, which Denmark might plead as an excuse to 
 * Instructions, July 28th, Denmark, F.O., 54, Record Office. 
 
Canning and Napoleon 75 
 
 France for this sudden action. " If a sword is drawn or a 
 shot fired," wrote Canning, " It will be a matter of sincere and 
 painful regret to His Majesty." But Jackson employed but 
 little diplomacy or patience believing that the Danish 
 Government were displaying a wilful procrastination. The 
 terms indeed were such as any proud nation would resent, 
 and could only have been arranged by the utmost delicacy 
 and tact. On August 7th the Danish minister denied, with 
 the most violent expressions and gestures, that Bonaparte had 
 made any proposals, and asserted that such a design would 
 at once have been met with a declaration of war. Jackson 
 replied that the quarter, from which the information came, did 
 not admit of its being treated as a mere idle rumour. With 
 an irony that sat better on a parliamentary debater than on 
 an ambassador, he remarked that " had it been His Majesty's 
 wish. . . . the conduct of the court of Denmark throughout 
 the war. . . . and more especially that of its agent (Mr. Rist) 
 in England would have alone been sufficient justification for 
 action." " What then ? " broke in Bernstorff dramatically, 
 " because you know that France has the intention of wounding 
 us in the tenderest part, would you struggle with her for 
 the guilty priority and be the first to commit the deed ? " But 
 the unmoved Mr. Jackson " begged him to lay aside figures of 
 speech which it was as unfit for me to hear as for you to 
 utter." Subsequently* the Regent, the Danish Crown Prince, 
 pronounced the proposals contrary to his honour and rendered 
 most offensive by menace, declared that he should lead his 
 troops in person, and that if he fell they would consider his fall 
 as a just debt to his country. But even this appeal failed to 
 shake Mr. Jackson, who retired to the fleet, and entrusted 
 further diplomatic persuasion to the iron lips of cannon. Sir 
 Arthur Wellesley completely defeated the land-forces at 
 Roskilde, and on the 8th September, Copenhagen, bombarded 
 both by land and sea, surrendered at discretion and gave up 
 the ships within her harbour. On October 28th the two fleets, 
 now united under the same flag, passed off Helsingborg, where 
 they saluted England's chivalrous ally, Gustavus, the King of 
 Sweden, amid a scene of unsurpassed magnificence. 
 
 Very anxious and weary were the days of expectation 
 
 * Jackson's mission is said to have given rise to George the third's one 
 joke : 'Was the Crown Prince up-stairs or on the ground-floor when he 
 received you,' George the third asked Jackson. ' He was on the ground- 
 floor, so please Your Majesty.' ' I am glad of that for your sake,' replied 
 the sturdy old king, " for if he had had half my spirit he would certainly 
 haAe kicked you down-stairs.' 
 
76 Life of Canning 
 
 passed by Canning during August to September. Even the 
 glad tidings of success were balanced by some disadvantages. 
 The 8,000 English troops co-operating with the Swedes in 
 Pomerania had been withdrawn for the purpose of the siege 
 of Copenhagen, and the King of Sweden thus left to cope 
 single-handed against Napoleon. More than this, the terms 
 of capitulation signed at Copenhagen provided that Zealand 
 should be evacuated within six weeks. Dr. Rose holds that this 
 was the real failure of the expedition, that Canning's project 
 had been the formation of a great naval league against France 
 which was rendered impossible by Denmark's attitude.* But 
 Canning explicitly declares that he had no design of holding 
 Zealand throughout the winter, because the English forces 
 were inadequate. He expressed great annoyance and irrita- 
 tion only because " this article straitens us too much in point 
 of time." A confidential agent of the British Government in 
 his report declares the object of Napoleon to have been to 
 close the Sound, by which peace might be made on terms 
 highly advantageous to Denmark, since the Emperor thought 
 the trade and navigation of the Baltic of more value to Great 
 Britain than her colonies and conquest. This project was 
 now defeated, even though Zealand was evacuated, and though 
 Gustavus would admit no English troops into Sweden to keep 
 a watch over Zealand. " The project of shutting off the 
 Sound," wrote Canning to Pierrepoint, " is become in a great 
 degree an idle threat, after the opportunity which the British 
 navy has now had of exploring the navigation of the Belts" 
 
 The actual design of Napoleon against Denmark is now 
 proved, but was Denmark merely incapable of resisting 
 Napoleon's demands, or was she in any sense his accomplice ? 
 That she was prepared to forsake her commercial neutrality 
 at his bidding seems clear. On July 31, Napoleon instructed 
 Talleyrand to demand that all Danish ports should be closed 
 to England. This would have been but a preface to the 
 handing over of her fleet, though the secret article of Tilsit 
 shows that demand might have been delayed till the end of 
 the year. On August 7, Bernstorff told Jackson that no 
 communications of any kind had come from Napoleon. It is 
 just possible — though unlikely — that the demands had not 
 been formally made, but we know from other sources that in 
 the first fortnight of July the Danish Crown Prince had 
 avowed his intention of closing his ports and abiding by the 
 wishes of France. These views were confidentially disclosed 
 * Letter to Boringdon, Sept. 30th, 1807. 
 
John Bull. 
 
 
 
Canning and Napoleon 77 
 
 by him to Baron Decken and therefore immediately repeated 
 to Pierrepoint, our Swedish Ambassador * Both he and the 
 King of Sweden at once wrote off to England to demand the 
 speedy despatch of our fleet to the Baltic, and at the same 
 time Garlike wrote from Copenhagen to the same effect. 
 The die had been cast and the fleet launched when these 
 despatches arrived, but incidentally they form the most com- 
 plete moral justification of the action of Canning. 
 
 But contemporaries had not this evidence before them. 
 They saw only an apparently unprovoked attack upon a small 
 and friendly power, which seemed an outrageous violation of 
 international law, as indefensible as the Grand Monarque's 
 occupation of Strasburg or Frederic's seizure of Silesia. 
 Tom Moore represented a common opinion when he wrote, 
 
 " If Grotius be thy guide, shut, shut the book 
 In force alone for law of nations look 
 .... While Cobbett's pirate code alone appears 
 Sound moral sense to England and Algiers." 
 
 Even Scott only ventured on indirect praise by makingt 
 King Alexander III see an appropriate and prophetic vision 
 in which 
 
 " A royal city tower and spire 
 
 Reddened the midnight sky with fire, 
 
 And shouting crews her navy bore 
 
 Triumphant to a further shore." 
 
 Gillray alone remained faithful and applauded the exploit in 
 a spirited cartoon. 
 
 Sheridan and Howick attacked the Government with the 
 utmost vigour, and pointed with irresistible logic to the millions 
 of shipping, which the unsuspecting Danes had left within 
 English ports. It is true that Canning's information on their 
 state of warlike preparation had been defective. But while 
 in office Lord Howick had brought England and Denmark to 
 the verge of war on this question and that of neutral rights, 
 and his attack was therefore disingenuous. On February 8, 
 1808, Canning replied to his accusers. The ministry, he said, 
 were called to account not for disaster but success. No 
 envious feelings of comparison could have instigated the 
 
 * These despatches from Pierrepoint and Garlike were dated 20th July, 
 (F. O. Sweden 41) and 17th July, Denmark 52). Canning's intelligence 
 from Tilsit reached him 21st July — and the decision was taken in the next 
 two days. Neither of the above-named despatches reached England in 
 time to affect this decision, the one arriving on August 3rd the other on 
 July 31st. 
 
 I Marmion, canto, iii-xxiv. 
 
7 8 Life of Canning 
 
 Opposition, as when nothing had been done by one set of 
 men it was impossible to find actions of theirs to compare 
 with what had been done by others. To the absolute accuracy 
 of his information as to Napoleon's designs he pledged his 
 honour, but declared he would rather be condemned unheard 
 than reveal the source of his information. Would it be any 
 satisfaction if we had sunk under the pressure from Bonaparte 
 to have died with our eyes fixed on Puffendorf and the law of 
 nations ? Moreover recent parallels to his action could be 
 drawn; England in 1801 occupied Madeira and in 1806 the 
 Talents Ministry had ordered the occupation of Lisbon, in 
 each case to prevent these places from falling into French 
 hands. Extreme necessity justified both these measures and 
 that against Denmark. History has confirmed the truth of 
 Canning's facts, and International Law has vindicated the 
 justice of his actions. On all sides it was admitted that his 
 reply was a masterpiece. Sydney Smith could only say " He 
 leapt about, touched facts with his wand and turned yes into 
 no." Envy here supplied the highest praise, for it admitted 
 that the wand of the enchanter had convinced the audience 
 and secured a great majority. 
 
 Had the capture of the Danish fleet an appreciable effect 
 on the political and economic situation ? The arm-chair 
 historian avers that the acquisition of twenty ships by the 
 French would not have turned the balance against England, 
 and that in the interests of public morality Canning should 
 have abstained from his attack. He should have allowed 
 England to be wounded, because the weapon which Napoleon 
 meant to turn against us was unlikely to inflict a mortal 
 blow. Even if war and policy depend on these nice numerical 
 calculations, Napoleon's acquisition of the Danish and Portu- 
 guese fleets would have made his naval strength almost equal 
 to that of England. But Sydney Smith, the ablest and 
 bitterest of Canning's opponents, unconsciously defends him 
 on this ground. " Napoleon has not ships and sailors to con- 
 test the empire of the seas. . . . but there remained quite 
 sufficient of the navies of France. ... for short excursions and 
 invasions. . . . If any body of French troops land in Ireland, 
 the population will rise against us to a man." The withdrawal 
 of the Danish fleet from Napoleon's eager grasp at least kept 
 the seas of England inviolate and the shores of Ireland unin- 
 vaded. It averted the threatened closure of the Sound and 
 enabled English troops to be sent to reinforce Sweden, and 
 10,000 Spanish troops led by Romana to escape from Napoleon 
 
Canning and Napoleon 79 
 
 and be transported to their country. Further, the effect pro- 
 duced upon the Tsar was great ; Canning trusted it would 
 " stun Russia into her senses," though with his usual caution 
 and insight he did not build too much on this hope. He 
 pierced through that dissimulation of which the Tsar was so 
 unapproached a master. But the presence of the British 
 fleet in the Baltic at least induced the Tsar to suspend his 
 adoption of the Continental system, and his declaration of 
 war till the extreme close of the year 1807. When we 
 consider the gravity of the crisis, these gains outweigh any 
 disadvantages. It has often been supposed that during the 
 first half of 1807 the Continental system was not seriously 
 enforced in the Baltic. Yet Lord Howick had sternly 
 remonstrated because of the enormous smuggling trade 
 carried on by Denmark in the interests of France. Fen- 
 wick wrote to Canning from Sleswick a fortnight after 
 the fall of Copenhagen describing the events of the year.* 
 " Discontent is great and just approaching to poverty. . . . 
 Prices of English manufactured goods and colonial produce 
 are risen more than 100% but their importation is almost 
 impossible." Relief soon came andf sugar, coffee, cocoa, 
 tobacco and other colonial products, with British bales of 
 cloth and cotton, were put under the Prussian flag, and ex- 
 ported in large quantities to France and Holland. The dues, 
 which Denmark had extracted from every ship which entered 
 the Sound, were also abolished. The English occupation of 
 Heligoland facilitated, and the presence of the British fleet 
 almost compelled at the cannon's mouth, a general system of 
 smuggling in favour of England throughout the Baltic ports. 
 The danger from which Canning had delivered England 
 in the case of Denmark threatened her also in the direction of 
 Portugal. On July 19th Napoleon informed the Portuguese 
 ambassador at Paris that his country must close its ports to 
 English commerce. He burst into paroxysms of rage when 
 he heard of the seizure of the Danish fleet, and in Canning's 
 words " found himself, to his infinite surprise no doubt, consti- 
 tuted the professor and upholder of international law." But 
 his methods were in no sense academic, for he concealed his 
 previous negotiations with Portugal and declared that, in con- 
 sequence of the English abuse of international rights, " he was 
 compelled to compensate himself by attacking Portugal ! " The 
 whole course of action illustrates the violence and impolicy of 
 Bonaparte and the vigour of Canning. It is a priceless com- 
 * Denmark F. O. 56. % Prussia, F. O. 77, Consul's Report. 
 
8o Life of Canning 
 
 ment on Canning's Danish policy that* Bonaparte " in a dic- 
 tatorial tone, suitable to Charlemagne among the princes of 
 whom he was suzerain lord, made at the court of Portugal this 
 singular demand ; — closure of all its ports to British vessels, 
 detention of all English residents, and seizure of all British 
 property in Portugal." The Portuguese Regent was sorely 
 frightened, and after some delay yielded the first demand, but 
 felt it inconsistent with his honour to yield the other two. 
 The Spanish and French ambassadors were instructed to leave 
 on September ist, in case of refusal, and without waiting for 
 a reply Bonaparte coolly seized all Portuguese vessels in 
 French ports. Early inf September Canning wrote a despatch 
 to Souza, urging that Bonaparte's evident intention was not to 
 distress but to annihilate Great Britain, and that these demands 
 on Portugal were but part of a system to enslave and subject all 
 neutrals to France. Accordingly acts or preparations of hos- 
 tility might find " Great Britain under the hard necessity of 
 first overpowering them (the neutral states) as enemies, with 
 the purpose of hereafter re-establishing them as independent 
 States." He was willing temporarily to overlook the closing 
 of the ports, but he saw too plainly the designs of Bonaparte 
 to hesitate. On October 22nd a treaty of mutual alliance and 
 defence was signed between Canning and Souza, the Portu- 
 guese ambassador in England, and it was arranged that the 
 Portuguese court should seek refuge in Brazil. A large Eng- 
 lish convoy had already left Portugal, and Junot with a French 
 army was advancing from Bayonne by forced marches to seize 
 the Portuguese fleet. The Regent still hesitated, and proposed 
 through Souza the plan of a "nominal war" against England. 
 Canning rejected it with disdain, remarking that this would be 
 to enlist all neutrals on the side of France. On November 6th 
 he resolved to bring matters to a crisis and wrote to Sir Sidney 
 Smith, who commanded a British squadron at the mouth of 
 the Tagus. His instructions were that, if the Regent still 
 refused to ratify the Convention and the ports still remained 
 closed, and if more British goods were confiscated, he was to 
 institute the most rigorous blockade. It was only to cease 
 on the surrender of the Portuguese fleet, which he should 
 promise to restore at the end of the war. If this was refused 
 he was to seize and destroy every Portuguese ship that came 
 his way. On November 24th this blockade began, and so 
 
 * Proclamation of Prince Regent from Brazil, ist May, 1808. Portugal 
 F. O. 63. 
 I Portugal F. O. ;6 for all these papers. 
 
Canning and Napoleon 8i 
 
 effective was its institution that the Prince Regent at length 
 capitulated. He dropped down the Tagus with a fleet of 
 thirty-six sail under the escort of the British squadron, just as 
 Junot entered his capital. It is clear that only the promptest 
 measures and most vigorous energy could have succeeded in 
 thus foiling the schemes of Napoleon, and in persuading the 
 timid and wavering Regent to* " convey to the New World the 
 hopes and fortunes of the Portuguese Monarchy, and the means 
 of founding it anew in augmented strength and splendour." 
 The Portuguese fleet of thirteen sail and fourteen frigates was 
 now withdrawn from any danger of contact with Napoleon, 
 Nelson destroyed nearly twenty men-of-war at Trafalgar. 
 Canning obtained over thirty from Denmark and Portugal. This 
 episode is in reality one of the most important of the time, 
 and has only been obscured by the greater notoriety of the 
 Danish expedition. The French invasion of Spain, which 
 followed quickly upon that of Portugal, had equally momentous 
 effects. Henceforward South and Central America both re- 
 fused to acknowledge Napoleon's interference with their 
 mother countries, opened their ports to the goods of England, 
 and relieved her from the strain of the Continental system. 
 The necessity of opening up fresh markets in these directions 
 had been foreseen by Canning in 1806, who had for that 
 reason praised the expedition to Buenos Ayres. 
 
 An extract from a despatch to Lord Strangford,t just at the 
 period of most anxious expectation, will show Canning's view 
 of the Continental system. "If ever the period should arrive," 
 wrote he, " which the rashness and fury of Bonaparte is hasten- 
 ing, and to which the shutting of the ports of Portugal is one 
 main step, — when Great Britain being excluded from all Con- 
 tinental intercourse, by the willing or the forced consent of the 
 Governments of Europe, should cease to feel any common 
 interest in them, and should treat them all as one common 
 enemy — the nations who now flatter themselves that they are 
 the most necessary to her existence, who fancy that their com- 
 merce is one of the main springs of her power, would perhaps 
 be the first to feel that that power is not created by foreign 
 commerce, though the use of it is mitigated and controlled by 
 the relations of Great Britain with the Continent, that this 
 country has in itself m its own consumption and its own colonies 
 ample means of self-existence ; and that in her intercourse 
 with other nations she bestows more benefit than she receives, 
 
 *To Souza, Sept. 1807, undated, 
 t Oct. 22, 1807. Canning to S. Portugal F. O. 56. 
 
82 Life of Canning 
 
 even when that intercourse is supposed to be most beneficial 
 and most studiously regulated in her favour.' This is the 
 argument from the English or maritime point of view, which 
 historians have often carried to excess in order to denounce 
 the Continental system as economically unsound and insane. 
 But there are other aspects to the question ; at its worst this 
 policy only set the wealth of a continent against that of an 
 island, trusting that the latter would be the first to be beggared. 
 At its best it was a link and consolidation of the Napoleonic 
 Empire, and offered an unrivalled means of developing manu- 
 factures behind its barrier. Napoleon may have thought the 
 total destruction of our export trade would prove the ruin of 
 this country, but the comparatively small bulk and enormous 
 market value of our textile goods eventually made smuggling 
 the most profitable of all trades. It brought about the climax 
 of absurdity when Napoleon was compelled to connive at the 
 introduction of British woollens into North Germany to clothe 
 his soldiers for the Russian Campaign. 
 
 Wellington and Nelson have had their full meed of fame 
 for defeating Napoleon, but the humbler figures of Crompton 
 and Cartwright, clad though they be in humble drab and 
 fustian, may claim their share. It was their ingenuity which 
 gave us a monopoly of manufactured goods throughout the 
 world, whilst at the same time our corn suppl)?- was sufficiently 
 great to make us largely self-sufficing in food. Our most real 
 danger was in fact from the neutrals, for as long as England 
 ruled the seas, a genuine and uninterrupted neutral trade really 
 served France. Even the most tyrannical exercise of search- 
 rights could not prevent much damage being wrought to 
 England, and smuggling, as we have seen, was also carried 
 on to our detriment in neutral vessels. The real truth is 
 that neither opponent in the gigantic duel felt he could allow 
 a third party to remain neutral. But Napoleon's attempts to 
 force neutrals into open hostility displayed little of his usual 
 foresight, and this was not only because neutral trade on the 
 whole benefited France. Our vexatious interferences and the 
 extreme violence of* our Order in Council of November, 1807, 
 
 * All parts of France to be in a state of blockade— and ships of all 
 nations to be good prize — unless they touched English shores. Canning 
 has always borne the blame of this order. In point of actual fact he had 
 seriously remonstrated against its continuance as early at the end of 
 1808. See a letter from George Rose in reply to his protest. Dec. 2nd, 
 1808. Portugal F.O. 67- George Rose was 'the Father of the Orders 
 in Council.' 
 
Canning and Napoleon 83 
 
 might have produced a declaration of war from Portugal and 
 Denmark, who both greatly resented it, as it eventually did 
 from the United States. The apparent harshness of 
 Canning's master-stroke against Denmark for once placed on 
 Napoleon's side the shadow of public opinion and morality. 
 But he at once exchanged for it the substance of neutrality, 
 by forcing Portugal into the arms of Great Britain on the 
 hypocritical plea of retaliation. A little delay or a little 
 judicious sympathy would have produced the result he 
 desired and perhaps have changed the fortunes of the great 
 struggle. 
 
 But these reflections on the neutral trade must not blind 
 us to the great importance of England's undisputed com- 
 mand of the sea, in rendering the Continental system 
 impossible. " Even if the ship is sinking ... it is our 
 duty to struggle against the boisterous elements ; but I 
 can never acknowledge that such is our state ; we are 
 riding proudly and nobly, buoyant on the waves." So 
 spoke Canning on January 31st, 1809. If England's navies 
 indeed rode trifimphant on every sea that result was 
 secured in the main by three events and three men, by 
 Earl St. Vincent's profound and masterly strategy in the 
 blockade of the French coasts, by Nelson's supreme victory 
 at Trafalgar, and by the seizure of the Danish and 
 Portuguese fleets in 1807. For the last exploits it is certain 
 that whatever of glory may cling to them in history will 
 be given to the bold spirit and impetuous energy which 
 planned and secured their success. 
 
 The vigour of Canning was equally shown in his attitude 
 to other nations. He had clearly seen through the selfish 
 policy of both Austria and Prussia, and knew that their 
 refusal to unite against Napoleon was caused by their jealousy 
 of one another. This Pitt had never grasped, and hence the 
 failure of his subsidy policy, of which Canning had even in his 
 lifetime expressed disapproval. A truer attitude was laid 
 down in a great speech by Fox, which — adopted by the 
 Talents Ministry — forms their one valuable contribution to 
 Foreign Policy. Their principle was not to raise up half 
 hearted and suspicious coalitions, but to give effective aid to 
 states declaring war against Napoleon of their own free-will 
 and choice. Canning adopted this policy to the full and sent 
 £250,000 to Austria when she declared war in 1809, a measure 
 clearly taken without aggressive purpose. Also whilst sending 
 money to Prussia he refused to conclude a formal treaty of 
 
84 Life of Canning 
 
 subsidy. He defines his policy in a letter to* Sir Jacobi 
 Kloest. " It would appear to make the efforts of Prussia for 
 her own salvation dependent wholly upon external aid ; and 
 to represent her attempts to repel the invader as the results 
 not of an indignant spirit of patriotism and an unconquerable 
 determination to retrieve the honour of the Prussian arms, 
 but of the stipulations of a subsidiary convention.' He 
 objected to rendering to a nation assistance, which did not 
 inspire and awake the energies of the Government and people 
 it protected. In this spirit he wrote to Souza t "the British 
 Government will not be wanting in furnishing the means of 
 exertion to Portugal. It will only require to be assured that 
 such exertions will be really made ! The mode, the extent 
 and distribution of forces and munitions of war would depend 
 entirely upon the activity of the Portuguese Government' 
 He thus early recognized and foretold that the chief hope of 
 Napoleon's overthrow lay in the awakening of the spirit of 
 nationalism against his universal supremacy. 
 
 The great conqueror who covered whole kingdoms at a 
 stride, whose path was marked by the desolation of empires 
 and the dismemberment of States, now turned to the only 
 unconquered part of West Europe. It was not only, as most 
 Englishmen think, that desire to enforce the Continental 
 system caused him to lay aside his yet vaster dreams of 
 oriental conquest and to invade the Spanish peninsula. 
 There was a strong French party in Spain, and the pre- 
 scriptive rights and age-long glories of Spanish royalty 
 threatened — and as it were mocked — the upstart empire of 
 France which adjoined it. Hence arose alike Napoleon's 
 aggressions, and the revolt of the Spanish people. Canning 
 was one of the first to perceive the advantages of a 
 vigorous prosecution of war in Spain, and with Wellesley 
 the first to dream that Napoleon was not invincible. 
 ' Was it then,' \ he asked indignantly when urging the con- 
 tinuance of the Spanish war, " that there was something 
 fatal in the will and irresistible in the power of Bonaparte ; 
 was the world to submit to his tyrannous resolves as to those 
 
 * Prussia F.O. 77. Record Office, v ; also an unsigned article ' Austrian 
 State Papers,' Quarterly, No. 2, May, 1809, by Sharon Turner and 
 Canning — in which his policy is most admirably sketched. Among other 
 matters the revolt of Prussia is foretold. 
 
 t Portugal F.O. 67, Nov. 18. 
 tFeb. 28th, 1809. 
 
Canning and Napoleon 85 
 
 of a Divine infliction ? " To others the expeditions to Spain 
 and Portugal were identical with the descents on Buenos 
 Ayres, Alexandria, Sicily or Walcheren. Canning from the 
 first decided to defend Portugal and make it the basis of an 
 attempt to vanquish France in Spain, and counted on 
 the success of the national uprisings. Napoleon admitted 
 the success of this policy when he said at St. Helena " the 
 Spanish ulcer destroyed me," and when he kept writing to his 
 generals in Spain* " nothing matters except the English." In 
 June, 1808, the deputies from the Asturias arrived and re- 
 quested aid against Napoleon. On June iSth, Canning made 
 the following declaration of policy in the Commons ; " We 
 shall proceed upon the principle that any nation of Europe 
 that starts up to oppose a power . . . the common enemy of 
 all nations, whatever be the existing political relations of that 
 nation, it becomes instantly our essential ally." He would, 
 he said, send aid to Spain even if her armies were led by 
 the Grand Inquisitor himself Sir Arthur Wellesley was at 
 once despatched to Spain with a force, which landed in 
 Portugal, and won the first of his many victories at Vimiera. 
 The triumph was marred by the Convention of Cintra, which 
 allowed Junot and the French army to evacuate Portugal 
 without molestation. Wellesley was unfortunately over-ruled, 
 despite remonstrance, by the presence of two senior officers Sir 
 H. Burrard and Sir Hew Dalrymple, who had succeeded him 
 in the chief command. When the Convention was ratified by 
 the Cabinet Canning refused to be present, by way of marking 
 his disapproval. At the same time he showed the greatest con- 
 sideration towards the unfortunate Wellesley, and steadily 
 defended both his foresight and qualifications for command. 
 
 Canning's mortification at this unhappy arrangement was 
 extreme, and it blazed out into angry fire, when Souza 
 addressed to him a despatch demanding " reparation " for the 
 Convention of Cintra. It was indeed overpowering that 
 the Portuguese Minister should presume to censure the 
 English for having compelled the French to evacuate his 
 country. A heated correspondence ensued in which Canning 
 had the best of the argument, which was complicated with 
 further information from Portugal. Finally Canning wrote 
 a despatch to Souza — which is probably unique in British 
 diplomacy.! " I send you the answer which you wished to 
 
 * See also Sorel vi, 330. 
 t Dec. II, 1808. Portugal F.O. 67. 
 
86 Life of Canning 
 
 have to your letter of the ist inst, and to which your letter 
 of the 5th (being the " explication explicative ") with a head 
 and a tail to it is a reply. This completes the series of a 
 correspondence from the like of which Heaven defend all 
 future Secretaries and Foreign Ministers though you and I 
 have survived it." He ended by declaring that he would 
 send the whole or none of the correspondence for approval to 
 the Prince-Regent in Brazil. Souza submitted and wrote 
 on 20th December to Mr. Hammond (Under-Secretary),"! 
 assure you that no man can be more disgusted with the 
 passed correspondence than I am, and God may pardon him 
 who is the cause of it. Sir Heiv, Sir Hew, you have much 
 indeed to account for." 
 
 In September, 1808, Sir John Moore, who had hitherto 
 served under Sir Hew Dalrymple, was appointed to command 
 an army which should advance to Madrid. Moore was a 
 capable officer in the field but a man by nature despondent. 
 His position was rendered more difficult by the presence of 
 Frere, who was plenipotentiary to the Spanish Cortes. Frere 
 pressed him to advance to the relief of Madrid, but *Moore 
 stil) hesitated perplexed by " Castlereagh's plausible verbose 
 nonsense " and " his inability to grasp our system." On 
 December loth, 1808, like a sword cleaving through all the 
 tangled criss-cross and chaos of threads, came a despatch 
 from Canning to Frere. " There must be no retreat on 
 Portugal, the army must act on a settled plan. It must be 
 united and caljed the British army, great confusions having 
 arisen among the natives from its having different titles, 
 " Moore's army — Wellesley's army," etc. — and Frere must 
 
 * The boldness of Moore's subsequent move should not blind us to his 
 previous indecision and hesitation. 
 
 There is a story given by Stapleton — that Moore said to Castlereagh 
 when appointed to command in September ' I protest against the expedi- 
 tion and foretell its failure.' When Canning heard this at the Cabinet, 
 he exclaimed, ' Good God — and you really mean to say you allowed a 
 man with such views to have command of the expedition.' It is now 
 clear from Sir Frederick Maurice's valuable Diary of Moore, ii. 269, that 
 Moore's words were applied to an expedition sent out in July. 
 
 Canning therefore meant — you allowed a man with such views in July 
 to have command in September. This in no way relieves Moore from 
 the charge of constitutional despondency or impatience of control. It 
 did not become an officer to protest against the July expedition, because 
 he was third in command and it fully justifies Canning's remark. Maurice 
 gives a letter which Mpore wrote to the War Office in 1798 — protesting 
 against his commanding officer and requesting to be recalled from Ire- 
 land as revolt was imminent ! 
 
Canning and Napoleon 87 
 
 receive a clear exposition of the system on which the 
 Spaniards intended to conduct the war." Canning thus 
 suggested Moore's junction with Baird, which was the prelude 
 to the famous enterprise. On December 21st Moore prepared 
 to strike at the French communications at Sahagun, a move 
 which forced Napoleon hastily to recall his forces, and which 
 ended in the far-famed retreat to Corunna, and the death of 
 Moore himself Canning declared that " every operation of 
 the campaign had proved glorious for the character of the 
 British army. If we had been obliged to quit Spain we 
 had left that country with fresh laurels blooming on our 
 brows." The effect was indeed decisive ; no army can be 
 suddenly turned from its objective, and compelled to under- 
 take forced marches at terrific speed, without injuring its 
 character and deranging every plan. The south of Spain 
 was relieved and Portugal protected, though Moore himself 
 imagined, with sublime illogicality, that his expedition would 
 be attended by no other advantage than "the character it 
 would attach to the British arms." 
 
 But the cost was great, Moore's forces had suffered terribly, 
 and had in addition been forced to embark for England. 
 The public sought a victim and with an unreflecting chivalry 
 passed over the hero, who had sunk to rest on the field of 
 glory, and fixed on the unfortunate Frere. Military and 
 political officers do not often act well together, and Moore 
 had given little information to the home authorities and had 
 quarrelled with Frere. The latter had at least been largely 
 responsible for the Spanish resistance to Napoleon. By his 
 measures he had secured the safe convoy of 10,000 Spanish 
 troops from Denmark to Spain, under the leadership of 
 Romana, afterwards the soul of the Spanish revolt. The 
 Spaniards made him a marquis, but the cries of the English 
 public enforced his dismissal. Canning generously defended 
 him and did not shrink from pointing out* the defects of 
 Moore, whose military judgment certainly compares badly 
 with that of Wellesley. The former declared Portugal could 
 under no circumstances be defended against the French, the 
 
 * Thus occasioning the lines : — 
 
 ' Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone, 
 And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him ; ' 
 It is perhaps worthy of remark that if Moore himself suffered from 
 detractors after death he wantonly attacked others during his life-time. 
 His diary is full of petulant or venomous denunciations of Hood, Sidney 
 Smith, and Wellesley, three of the ablest officers who ever adorned 
 either our naval or military service. 
 
88 Life of Canning 
 
 latter avowed that it could, and proved his case. Canning 
 again faced unpopularity, when he insisted on the appointment 
 of Wellesley to supreme command in Portugal, in face of 
 opposition both in public and in the Cabinet. " My opinion 
 alone was the cause of the continuance of the war in the 
 Peninsula," he said afterwards to Stapleton. Early in 1809 a 
 treaty was concluded with the Junta by which each party 
 promised to make no separate peace. Sir Arthur Wellesley 
 soon rewarded Canning's confidence by the passage of the 
 Douro and the victory of Talavera, and Lord Wellesley, 
 despatched as Plenipotentiary, helped by diplomatic means 
 to strengthen the British position. Canning supplied Sir 
 Arthur Wellesley with all the reinforcements he could, though 
 at this time he did not desire too large an army as supplies 
 were insufficient. Unlike Perceval's Ministry, which in later 
 years more than once told Wellington that the whole blame of 
 failure must rest on his head, Canning gloried in assuming full 
 responsibility. " I discharged the glorious duty," said he, Ap. 
 30th, 1823, "of recognizing without delay the rights of the 
 Spanish people. ... It was indeed a stirring, a kindling time ; 
 and no man who has a heart in his bosom can think even now 
 of the noble enthusiasm, the undaunted courage, the unconquer- 
 able exertions of the Spaniards in a cause apparently desperate 
 finally so triumphant — without feeling his blood glow and his 
 pulses quicken with tumultuous throbs of admiration." 
 
 Meanwhile Castlereagh, who was War Minister, agreed as 
 little with Canning as Moore with Frere. Both were men of 
 strong character, energy and ability, but the duties of each 
 were badly defined, and there was a constant clash between 
 authorities. Castlereagh was able and hard-working, but even 
 his purely military administration was not a success and he 
 had not Canning's larger political views. A few instances will 
 show his lack of consideration for his colleague. The Spanish 
 Junta or provisional government was jealous of the introduc- 
 tion of English troops into their strong places. Frere 
 had with great difficulty lulled their fears, and was hoping 
 to induce them to request an English garrison for Cadiz. 
 Suddenly an agent of Castlereagh's arrived to arrange for 
 the landing of an English force at Cadiz, without having 
 made any previous communication with Frere or Canning. 
 The confusion, jealousy and suspicion thus occasioned can 
 be imagined. Castlereagh had most of the Cabinet on his 
 side and the authority of special military knowledge. 
 Against Canning's wishes he enforced the agreement to 
 
Canning and Napoleon 89 
 
 the Convention of Cintra, insisted on sending 12,000 troops 
 to Sicily instead of reinforcing Portugal, and advocated 
 the* disastrous Walcheren expedition. Such incidents will 
 explain why in April, 1809, Canning approached the Premier 
 and demanded " a change in Castlereagh's department or mine." 
 He suggested not that Castlereagh should leave the ministry, 
 but that he should have another office. He accused him not 
 of incompetency but of incompatibility, and declared there 
 must be a new distribution of business between the War and 
 Foreign Offices. Portland agreed with Canning's views and 
 declared he would consult with his friends. Being naturally 
 timid and afraid of giving offence, as well as suffering from a 
 terrible internal complaint, his negotiations were delayed. 
 The real cause of offence was Lord Camden, who was the 
 uncle of Castlereagh, and who had offered to resign the 
 presidency of the council in his favour. But he showed no 
 desire to give up the seals at once, or to acquaint Castlereagh 
 with the decision. On July 12th, Canning heard of the con- 
 cealment and made the keenest remonstrances. Portland 
 worn with disease and care replied that the concealment had 
 originated with himself, and that he would bear the blame. 
 The necessity of getting the King to agree to the changes 
 prolonged the negotiations and the silence. On the 6th 
 September Canning heard, to his horror, that Portland and 
 Castlereagh's friends had not yet revealed to him the pro- 
 posed changes. Canning at once resigned " rather than enforce 
 the intended change." t 
 
 Castlereagh now for the first time heard from his supposed 
 friends of the negotiations. He imagined in his indignation 
 that Canning had demanded his exclusion from the ministry 
 on the ground of incompetency, and yet had for six months 
 
 * Canning's attitude to this expedition was that he did not approve of 
 it, but that his disapproval was not sufficiently strong to oppose it. 
 Wellesley thought the plan good but the execution lamentable. He 
 would have welcomed a small reinforcement but could not have fed a 
 fresh army of 40,000 on the devastated land of Portugal. 
 
 t Sir Fred. Maurice puts faith in a rumour, which had no credence even 
 at the time— that Canning proposed to "give up Moore" and that Castle- 
 reagh nobly answered by a bullet ! This is contrary to all the known 
 evidence, and is directly contradicted by the statements and conduct of 
 Castlereagh himself. In any case the internal evidence of Canning's 
 character would dismiss so extraordinary a charge. But even if we put 
 all this aside we may be assured that any slander, which Walcot and 
 Lady Ann Hamilton do not venture to assert about him, can have no 
 foundation in fact or even in plausible fiction. 
 
 6 
 
90 Life of Canning 
 
 after the demand sat in the same Cabinet with him, and even 
 allowed him to conduct the Walcheren expedition. Such 
 misconceptions had a serious result, for the hot-blooded 
 Castlereagh at once sent a challenge which Canning as rashly 
 accepted. Ministers in those days, like Hungarian premiers 
 of to-day, often had to defend their offices at the pistol's 
 mouth. Pitt fought with Tierney, Wellington with Winchelsea, 
 Peel thought of calling out Disraeli. But for colleagues to 
 fight one another was an unheard of scandal. The two 
 pupils of Pitt met on Putney Heath, and fought, with a certain 
 grim irony, in full view of the house where the master had 
 died. The first discharge was harmless, as a contemporary 
 rhyme said : 
 
 ' For Doodle hit not Noodle grave, 
 And Noodle's shot at Doodle brave 
 Whisked by right harmlessly.' 
 
 At the second Canning shot a button off Castlereagh's coat 
 and, though wounded in the thigh, firmly stood his ground. 
 The principals were preparing to fire again when the seconds 
 saw blood flowing from the wound and interfered. Subse- 
 quently a complete reconciliation was effected between the 
 two. Canning's action was much criticized, and he acquired 
 from this incident a reputation for* intriguing of which 
 henceforth he could never divest himself Yet on a fair 
 review of the question he can hardly be much blamed ; the 
 real causes of the quarrel were the vacillation of Portland and 
 Camden. Of treachery or intrigue it is as impossible to accuse 
 Canning on a full knowledge of the facts, as it would be on 
 the less certain presumption of his character. Sir Walter 
 Scott, the soul of chivalry and honour, who knew nothing of 
 political exigencies, pronounced the conduct of Canning to 
 have been blameless throughout these transactions. 
 
 That a personal quarrel should thus have withdrawn from 
 the Ministry its ablest member was a national calamity. From 
 this time dated all Canning's personal misfortunes, from this 
 time dated the feebleness of the support afforded to 
 Wellington, though before he left office Canning had fortun- 
 
 * The affair was much discussed in the papers. Lord Camden pub- 
 lished a somewhat disingenuous explanation to which Canning replied 
 with much skill. Canning's case was much damaged by the almost 
 immediate death of the Duke of Portland. Henceforward not only was 
 the most responsible person unable to give any explanation, but from 
 delicacy of feeling Canning refused to make any statement which could- 
 attribute blame to the dead. 
 
Canning and Napoleon 91 
 
 ately and irrevocably engaged England's honour in that 
 Spanish struggle, " whence issued the deliverance of Europe." 
 By rejecting Napoleon's overtures at Erfurt, on the ground 
 that Spain was still under his domination. Canning showed 
 his cosmopolitan spirit and demonstrated that the restoration 
 of Hanover was not the sole object of British Policy. A 
 purely insular policy would in fact have been impracticable 
 and would have proved the destruction of England. The 
 commercial tactics brought about the ruin of Napoleon, and 
 had Canning stayed in office his remonstrances might have 
 secured the repeal of the Orders in Council and so averted the 
 American war. Some declared his policy rash and violent, a 
 charge not well supported by the facts now known, but none 
 could deny the vigour and the boldness of its conceptions. 
 On June 14th, 1809, Sir Walter Scott wrote of how Canning 
 despised the half measures of his colleagues in the Cabinet. 
 " It is not his fault that the cause of Spain is not at this 
 moment triumphant. This I know, and there will come a 
 time when the world will know it too." Perhaps that day 
 has at length arrived, or is it yet delayed ? In England 
 time alone can weave the laurel of the hero or compose 
 the halo of the saint. When another century has passed 
 Canning may be reckoned with Danton or Cromwell as 
 one in whom, " when she had died out among all other 
 men, Hope still shone as a pillar of fire." The sinking hearts 
 of his countrymen were roused by his fervid appeals and his 
 indignant eloquence. As * he said with quiet self-restraint of 
 his conduct during this time, " True it was that clouds and 
 darkness occasionally gathered on the horizon ; but even 
 through those clouds and through that darkness, I saw, or 
 fondly fancied I saw, a ray of light which promised to pierce 
 the gloom, and which might hereafter lighten the nations." 
 
 Note — who was it? 
 
 No account of the Danish Expedition would be complete 
 without an attempt to discover the true source of Canning's 
 information. Stapleton declares that the intelligence came from 
 a man, who listened behind a curtain to the colloquy between 
 Napoleon and the Czar on the raft at Tilsit. The personality 
 of this man is as mysterious as that of Junius or the wearer 
 of the Iron Mask. He is supposed to have been one 
 Mackenzie, an English spy, and a tradition in this man's 
 
 " 1 6th April, 1816. 
 
92 Life of Canning 
 
 family declares he was concealed on the raft. Stapleton's 
 account has been declared dramatic and fictitious, but Mitchell 
 lends additional testimony. " I have spoken with an English 
 person who saw the interview at Tilsit,"* he writes from 
 Elsingoer on July ii, "he described the conversation of both 
 parties to have been very animated and that they seemed very 
 cordial to one another." Though Stapleton is thus vindicated 
 the really important fact is that Canning's refusal to reveal 
 his source of information as well as t certain of his expressions, 
 seem to indicate that an exalted personage communicated 
 the more essential part of the intelligence. Opinion has long 
 hesitated between Talleyrand and Bennigsen. But Bennigsen 
 was not suspected by Sir Robert Wilson, who even supplied 
 him with important information. Wilson knew much of the 
 secret history of the time and has himself been supposed, not 
 without reason, to have disclosed the secrets of Tilsit to 
 Canning. But Talleyrand is a more probable person. He 
 knew he was about to be dismissed, and % he openly dis- 
 approved of Napoleon's treatment of Prussia and Portugal. 
 Remembering his secret intrigues with Malmesbury at Lisle, 
 what more likely than that he is the source of the intelligence? 
 A passage in § Fouche's Memoirs declares Napoleon believed 
 this to be the case. We know now that these memoirs are 
 not authentic, and though it was always clear that they had 
 many absurd blunders Canning and Liverpool thought they 
 were genuine. Stapleton showed the passage in question to 
 Canning, who smilingly accepted it as a justification for his 
 policy. This is more than significant : it is conclusive. It 
 indicates Talleyrand as the true source and explains (what is 
 
 * Denmark F.O. 56. Dates allow this person to be Mackenzie. 
 
 i " Sir Robert Wilson, Life," II. 283, writes he had accurate accounts of 
 the Tilsit interview on June 26th. Hence Mackenzie' s information would 
 have been communicated before July 2ist. On July 22nd Canning wrote 
 to Brook-Taylor " intelligence reached me yesterday directly from Tilsit 
 about the designs of Bonaparte." Dr. Rose seems to omit this in his 
 calculations, for here is clearly implied one authoritative source, which of 
 course only confirmed all the other rumours. On July 3rd and ijlh 
 Jackson acknowledges the receipt of important intelligence (Prussia, 
 F. O. 75. Life, II. 173) — the former news could have reached England 
 in time. 
 
 Jackson first told Bernstorff that " the quarter from which his informa- 
 tion was received did not admit of its being treated as a mere idle 
 rumour," and then mentions other sources. Denmark F.O. 54. 
 
 t Lettres in^dites de Talleyrand, p. 476. He was removed on Aug. 8th. 
 
 8 p. 314, edn. 1892. English Translation, 
 
Canning and Napoleon 93 
 
 otherwise incomprehensible) how two men so acute and so 
 learned in state secrets as Canning and Liverpool could be 
 duped into believing the Memoirs to be authentic. 
 
 Besides the intelligence direct from Tilsit, Canning had 
 many other sources of information, though none so decisive or 
 convincing. Of these one came from * the Regent of Portugal, 
 others were rumours from the Paris papers, or intelligence from 
 private individuals, ambassadors and consular agents. But 
 though he must have already received Mackenzie's report and 
 heard most of these other rumours, Canning remained in- 
 decisive till the news of July 21st, when he at once took action, 
 convinced by this last piece of intelligence that all the rest 
 was true. One more possibility remains, for the intelligence 
 of the 2 1st may have come from Tilsit to the Danish or 
 some other ambassador in England.! Letters coming to 
 foreign ambassadors were at this time usually opened and 
 deciphered, and the authenticity of the information thus 
 obtained could not have been doubted. But, as far as can be 
 gathered, the most probable explanation of the facts is this. 
 jThere was a man on the raft who communicated some in- 
 telligence to the British Government, but his information was 
 supplemented by the more valuable disclosures of a high 
 official. This was probably Talleyrand, but, whoever it was, 
 his information at once cleared away all Canning's doubts and 
 proved the truth of all the rumours and assertions. The 
 actual question as to whether the information was genuine or 
 not, so long doubted and disputed by contemporaries, was 
 settled half a century after Canning had been laid in the 
 grave, when the publication of the secret articles of Tilsit more 
 than confirmed and justified his action. 
 
 * Malmesbury IV. 391. His information on this period — as shown by 
 our MSS. Records— is singularly accurate. So this, though unlikely, may 
 be true. 
 
 From an article in the Quarterly, No. 2, May, 1809, by Canning, we 
 gather that he attached much importance to rumours in France on the 
 subject of the Danish project. 
 
 iv. Espy. Yonge's Life of Liverpool, L 239. Foreign powers got to 
 find them out, and Squza's brother used to write letters to him not in 
 Portuguese but in French, in order that the English Government might 
 more easily decipher them. 
 
 X The man on the raft may have been Mackenzie. But he was not the 
 authoritative source. He knew nothing of the treaty of Tilsit, and 
 brought no new information after July 4th, and did not arrive in England 
 X\ViJuly 2yd. v. Private letters of ist Earl Malmesbury, p. 27. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 canning's political creed 
 
 With little direct influence upon foreign affairs during the 
 years 1810-22, Canning's thoughts naturally bent towards 
 domestic policy. Despite his change from the Whiggism of 
 his youth it may be affirmed, without fear of dispute, that there 
 is no great English statesman whose early ideas were main- 
 tained with more, or even with equal persistence. Time only 
 deepened and strengthened the convictions formed in 1792-3, 
 and served to display alike his consistency and his foresight. 
 To the last he was a Tory with liberal ideas, of the school of 
 Pitt, though unlike his master he never" modified his opinions 
 whilst actually in office. His attitude towards the Constitution 
 will serve to illustrate both hiS personal opinions and his con- 
 ceptions of statesmanship. The Englishman abhors novelty 
 so much in his pet institutions, that every reformer has to 
 pretend he is restoring some primeval excellence to the British 
 Constitution. Hence the spectacle to-day which amuses the 
 cynic and deceives the populace, where the carefully preserved 
 forms of the fourteenth conceal the workings of the forces of 
 the twentieth century. The bigotry of some of the Tories of 
 Canning's time strains belief and mocks at imagination. They 
 had all the sluggishness of Walpole, without his shrewdness 
 and desire to conciliate the people. As Sydney Smith said 
 wittily enough, " Lord Eldon would not consent to the 
 revolutionary proposition that two and two make four, without 
 sighs and tears, scruples and protestations and appeals to 
 heaven." General Gascoyne declared not only that the slave 
 trade ought to exist, but that if it had never existed, it would 
 now be necessary to invent it for the good of society. 
 Wellington thought the return of the Whigs to office more 
 dangerous than a French invasion. To these ponderous 
 politicians any change was fraught with ruin and danger. 
 
Caunings Political Creed 95 
 
 Such was the effect of the French Revolution, of its wild 
 theories and wilder practice, upon the minds of many English- 
 men. Canning yielded to none in his opposition to French 
 principles, and even despised the undoubted benefits they had 
 secured by sweeping away feudal abuses and establishing 
 social and legal equality. But greatly to the credit of his 
 wisdom and intelligence he perceived a fact unsuspected by 
 most Tories, that no government however excellent could 
 exist by a policy of mere inaction, stagnation and repression. 
 Airy and unsubstantial theories might indeed be cast aside, 
 but the application of generous and liberal principles was not 
 to be rejected, if their foundations lay in truth, because their 
 danger lay in excess. " They, who resist indiscriminately all 
 improvements as innovations, may find themselves compelled 
 to submit to innovations, although they are not improvements." 
 These are the words of a true statesman and in fact outlined 
 the only conditions on which Toryism could continue its 
 existence or development. 
 
 To grasp an idea of our institutions before and after 1832 is 
 to conceive the world during and after a Glacial Age. The 
 Constitution like the earth was bound in icy and immovable 
 bonds, till the liberating waters were unsealed. To realise the 
 mental attitude of Eldon or Gascoyne is an almost equal effort 
 of imagination. Canning himself hoped never to see the day 
 when England would become '• a democracy inlaid with a 
 peerage and topped with a crown." The great Reform Bill 
 did more than any single event to achieve this end, to shift the 
 balance of the Constitution, and to revolutionise our concep- 
 tions of its principles. In the eyes of Burke, Pitt and Black- 
 stone, the old British Constitution was the masterpiece of 
 human wisdom just because it was not what it now is, a 
 democracy with aristocratic and monarchic infusions. On 
 the contrary it contained and harmonised within itself the 
 three principles of government — monarchy, aristocracy and 
 democracy, each balancing and restraining the other. Each 
 branch was independent in its allotted department, and equal 
 with regard to the other two, whose evils and excesses it 
 helped to check. Foreigners from Montesquieu to Voltaire, 
 with an even less discerning eye, raved over the ideal beauties 
 and technical perfections of our Constitution. It was the 
 Sacred Ark of Liberty treasuring the Political Decalogue on 
 tablets more enduring than stone. This extravagance found 
 its climax in Delolme, whose work on the Constitution remained 
 a classic for half a century. It was in vain that Rousseau 
 
g6 Life of Canning 
 
 scoffed at our system, rejected all existing governments and 
 put his faith in republics. The ludicrous and bloody attempts 
 of his followers to establish the rule of peace and love only 
 led Englishmen to cling more tightly to the abuses of our 
 Constitution, in the belief that they were its blessings. 
 
 Canning accepted the old constitutional theory and gave it 
 a practical meaning. If the king was to be a power in the 
 state he must not govern solely by influence, but must have a 
 recognised orbit of his own. Hence within a limited range 
 Canning supported the personal government of the king, 
 and attached great weight to the royal desires and opinions. 
 Thus he would not join the Talents Ministry, because 
 " Lord Grenville had selected him individually and without 
 the king's previous knowledge." A government could not 
 be all it ought to be for weight and authority, popularity 
 and confidence, "unless the king were admitted into it. 
 He must know of any proposed modification, must ap- 
 prove the design and be seen in the execution. To your 
 neglect of this principle," wrote Canning to Grenville " is to 
 be traced the indisposition felt to the Government throughout 
 the country." In the same spirit he attacked the Limited 
 Service Bill, because it deprived the crown of privileges 
 in favour of Parliament, and for the same reason he was 
 opposed to all statutory restrictions on the power of the Regent. 
 He saw clearly enough that until the reign of George the 
 third — in contradiction to constitutional theory — the Peers 
 had held the main influence. While they captured the rotten 
 boroughs and made pensioners of the Commons, the members 
 of the Lower House and the king had sunk into the back- 
 ground, and the people had been disregarded. George the 
 third, by his skilful intrigues and immovable obstinacy, had won 
 a victory over the proud Whig nobles alike in 1784 and 1807. 
 In each case the people as a whole welcomed the change and 
 applauded the sovereign. The Crown still held great influence 
 through its many Government boroughs and extensive patron- 
 age, neither of which were as yet completely in the hands of 
 ministers. Canning saw that the power of the Crown could 
 be used as a direct and effective check upon that of the nobles ; 
 and on occasion be united with that of the independent 
 members of parliament, and with the people to oppose aristo- 
 cratic pretensions, for the good of the nation at large. " I 
 think," said he, June nth, 18 12, "that in the very best spirit 
 of the constitution the Crown has exclusively the appoint- 
 ment of ministers subject to the control and advice of a free 
 
Canning's Political Creed 97 
 
 Parliament." " I have never deemed it reasonable," he said on 
 another occasion, "that any confederacy of great names 
 should monopolise to themselves the whole patronage and 
 authority of the State, should constitute themselves as it were 
 into a corporation, a bank for circulating the favours of the 
 House and the suffrages of the people, and delivering them 
 only to their own adherents." And he ended by saying in 
 the words of Burke, " I will look those proud combinations 
 in the face." We cannot but admire the boldness of these 
 words and the proud independence which they exhibited. 
 Though particularly opposed to the patrician exclusiveness 
 of the Whigs, Canning was equally in earnest against their 
 rivals. With their long tenure of power the great Tory 
 nobles waxed insolent, and attempted on Liverpool's death to 
 dictate to the king a choice of a premier. As the first lord 
 of the Treasury controlled all the government boroughs and 
 most of the patronage, George the third's great aim had 
 always been to nominate his own prime minister. His son 
 was equally alive to the importance of this privilege and 
 would not yield, with the result that Canning became prime 
 minister. Both press and people exulted over the defeat of 
 "the pretensions of the great families to interfere in the 
 nomination of ministers," without regard to the wishes of 
 sovereign or of people. 
 
 This theory of the patriot king, who checked aristocracy 
 in the name of his own independence and in deference to the 
 popular will, has not survived. It had many of the defects of 
 direct personal government without the advantages of 
 absolutism. The king might be brought into ridicule and 
 contempt and become a party leader. But Canning was 
 forced to admit the direct and active interference of the 
 Crown in affairs, because his views on Reform precluded any 
 further and more direct influence being exercised by the 
 people. No king had ever been so unpopular as George the 
 third during the first half of his reign, until George the fourth 
 surpassed him throughout most of his period of rule. In 
 each case the reason was that men feared the influence of 
 their personal opinions and characters upon the course of 
 government. Personal government, in whatever shape and 
 however restricted, was obsolete in theory and discredited in 
 practice. Monarchy, which in the later days of George the 
 fourth seemed built on quicksands, has recovered its founda- 
 tions of rock under the seventh Edward, because the king has 
 gained in influence something of what he has lost in power. 
 
98 Life of Canning 
 
 Disraeli, indeed, revived Canning's idea of royal democracy, but 
 placed the sovereign above and beyond party. The heresy of 
 the three branches, which lodged power equally in King, Lords 
 and Commons appears to-day as a sort of triple see-saw, an 
 ingenious construction as delightful in theory as impossible 
 in practice. Yet it was believed both by* Burke and by 
 Blackstone, the two greatest intellects who ever devoted 
 themselves to expounding constitutional practice and theory. 
 To allow the king much power in choosing ministers and 
 dispensing patronage was to give this theory the only 
 practical meaning it could bear. Also the excitable and 
 poetical mind of Canning invested monarchy with mysticism 
 reverence and tradition. He did not descend to the adulatioh 
 of Sir Walter Scott, who pocketed the glass from which 
 royalty had drunk, swore to preserve it as an heirloom, but 
 inadvertently smashed it to pieces as he sat down. But he 
 spoke with bated breath of the " awful oiifice of a king," the 
 living symbol of unity, order and peace. When referring to 
 the king's speech he did not say, " His Majesty's gracious 
 message," but, " the words we have heard from the sacred lips 
 which spake from the throne of this land." t That Canning 
 should uphold some of the abuses as well as the privileges of 
 monarchy is but another instance of the reactionary influence 
 of Jacobinism upon one of the most liberal minded and keen 
 sighted of statesmen. 
 
 Though Canning in this one instance tried to give effect to 
 a system out-worn in practice, no one was usually more ready 
 to recognize and acknowledge the practical and living 
 elements of the Constitution. He was the first important 
 statesman to proclaim and avow the existence of the Cabinet. 
 That strange and mysterious body had originally been a 
 recognized committee of the Privy Council, which was gradu- 
 ally converted into an informal gathering of ministers. Its 
 principles were at this time but imperfectly recognized, chiefly 
 
 * Burke's views are almost contradictory, for whilst wishing to reduce 
 the royal control of patronage he designed for the king a great and 
 effective influence in affairs. 
 
 t Canning has been accused of unworthy deference to the wishes of 
 the Sovereign. The two cases usually advanced to prove this, are the 
 appointments he gave to Ponsonby and Lord Francis Conyngham. 
 The former was approved and suggested by Liverpool whose one firmness 
 was his attitude towards his Sovereign. The latter is at least susceptible 
 of an explanation highly honourable to Canning — advanced upon a later 
 page. Note p. 186. 
 
Cannings Political Creed 99 
 
 because the Cabinet is essentially the development of party, 
 and because party views had at this time been much obscured 
 and confused by the personal influence of George the third. 
 But to deny the existence of the Cabinet, as the Whigs ven- 
 tured to do in 1806, was absurd. In a debate which arose on 
 the inclusion of the Chief Justice in the Cabinet, the Whigs met 
 all assault, adroitly but pedantically, by the wretched sophistry 
 that the Cabinet was unknown to the Law and Constitution. 
 Canning heaped measureless scorn on this quibble, " we had 
 persons who performed all the functions of government, but 
 directly we entered this House we were told there was no 
 Cabinet." It might be true that the Constitution recognized 
 nothing under the name of Cabinet, but none the less the 
 body had a practical existence and was a responsible Council. 
 To uphold in terms so bold and uncompromising the practical 
 existence of the most secret and mysterious of executive 
 bodies, to declare that publicity implied legality, would have 
 been courageous in any statesman. But such an utterance 
 was bold indeed in the mouth of a Tory statesman at a time 
 when men shrank from constitutional innovation as from 
 leprosy, and mistook antiquity for excellence and tradition 
 for progress. It is only in our last half century that the 
 Cabinet has been recognized as the most essential and 
 characteristic feature of our Constitution, and that its powers 
 and principles have become a commonplace. Canning like- 
 wise both assisted and perceived the development of the 
 power of the Prime Minister. Like Pitt, he declared there 
 must be one minister possessing the avowed and real supre- 
 macy. When discussing the formation of a new ministry in 
 1 809 he laid it down as a principle, from which he would not 
 depart, that the Prime Minister should be a member of the 
 House of Commons. Though this doctrine has not always 
 been admitted in practice, it is in substance none the less 
 true, for whatever his actual post the leader of the Commons 
 must always have the very greatest influence. Events have 
 justified Canning, and his position was in fact even more 
 defensible, when patronage was still a mainspring of govern- 
 ment, and when the leader of the Commons was the chief 
 dispenser of crown boroughs and places. Nowadays the 
 peer-premier can develop and increase his influence by plat- 
 form speeches and mass-meetings, and thus avoid too great 
 dependence on his colleague in the Commons. That this 
 maxim astounded Canning's contemporaries, more especially 
 the haughty Whig nobles thus excluded from the highest 
 
lOO Life of Canning 
 
 office in the land, only serves to measure the practical 
 wisdom and foresight of its author. 
 
 A steadfast opponent of Reform, Canning was yet an 
 equally zealous champion of the influence of the people and 
 the press. Alison, who identified providence with bigotry, 
 declared that the demons of hell would exult over the passage 
 of the first Reform Bill. Wellington thought the nobility 
 would be brought to the scaffold, and succeeded by the only 
 aristocracy which in his view a democracy produced, — an 
 aristocracy of blackguards. Canning's view was almost as 
 gloomy, Reform meant violent changes, complete democracy 
 and a revival of the French Revolution with its thousand 
 shapes of death. * But his arguments and objections were 
 more profound and philosophic than those of other Tories, 
 and his orations against Reform remain the only ones which 
 we can read without laughter or treat as serious. Projects of 
 Reform he held were in fact Radical, inevitably striking at 
 the roots of our oldest and best institutions. Above all they 
 substituted uniformity for diversity and monotony for grada- 
 tion. Parliamentary representation was in some cases unsatis- 
 factory and even corrupt, but in its unexampled variety it 
 mirrored the different interests and classes of the country. 
 For constituencies had every variety of franchise, some were 
 wholly democratic, others had a moderate property franchise, 
 others were confined to a few venal pot-wallopers. This very 
 difference was the product and the origin of that regulated 
 ordered and balanced libert)', in which England stood alone 
 and unique. If the real excellence of our Constitution lay in 
 its age, at no time had popular influences been so effective 
 upon the government. A complete and perfect democratical 
 representation could not exist with a mixed or constitutional 
 form of government. " Gentleman opposite," said he, " are 
 always talking of the people as distinguished from the rest of 
 the nation. But strip the nation of its aristocracy, strip it of 
 its merchants, of its gentry and I no more recognize a people 
 than I recognize in the Bird of Diogenes the Man of Plato." 
 It will be seen that in domestic as in foreign policy Canning 
 strove to hold the balance, and to stem both the extravagance 
 of despotism and the licentiousness of unbridled freedom. 
 The French Revolution had only been possible, because all 
 
 * It is most striking to see how the philosophic Radicals esteemed him. 
 " I would undertake," wrote James Mill, " to make Mr. Canning a convert 
 to the principles of good government sooner than your Lord Grey or Sir 
 James Mackintosh." — p. 24, Sel. Corres. Macvey Napier, Sept. loth, 1819. 
 
Cannings Political Creed loi 
 
 privilege and diversity had sunk beneath the torrent. " The 
 first work of the Jacobins was to loosen every established 
 political relation, every legal holding of man to man, to des- 
 troy every corporation, to dissolve every existing class of 
 society, to reduce the nation to individuals in order afterwards 
 to congregate them into mobs." While each constituency 
 retained its special and parochial character a dead level of 
 uniformity was impossible, and there was a barrier to the 
 excesses of a blind or headstrong majority. While Birming- 
 ham had no members and Cornwall forty-two, while the 
 Crown controlled its government boroughs, the Constitution 
 was safe. Unbridled democracy might sweep the polls, where 
 the franchise was popular, but would be powerless when con- 
 fronted with the close and narrow system of representation else- 
 where. To use a simile it would be as Cceur de Lion's sword, 
 which cleft the iron bar but failed before the silken cushion. 
 
 " Canning," said Coleridge, " flashed such a light around 
 the Constitution that it was difficult to see the ruins 
 of the fabric through it." The old system had no such 
 ingenious and logical defender as Canning, who was right 
 in perceiving that the changes proposed were organic, and 
 implied not only progress but revolution. The Whigs 
 thought otherwise, and proposed to balance power with 
 liberty and property against population. Lord John Russell, 
 their most prominent leader, maintained that the Reform 
 Bill would be a lasting and permanent settlement, and 
 thereby earned the nickname of " Finality Jack." To expect 
 that the people would remain permanently satisfied with the 
 moderate concessions of 1832 was in fact about as reasonable 
 a hope as that of the Aztecs, who sent a cartwheel of solid 
 silver to Cortez, in the full assurance that it would induce him 
 to suspend his advance on their capital. Long before 1832 
 Canning had foreseen that the new forces and ideas, thus recog- 
 nized, would become abiding and perpetual in their influence, 
 and lead inevitably to that turbulent democracy which both 
 Whigs and Tories feared. The justification of the Whigs 
 does not lie in their foresight, but in their appreciation of the 
 new conditions around them. The merchants and shopkeepers 
 had become so wealthy and important that they were resolved 
 to have representation even at the cost of rebellion. The 
 Whigs applied immediate remedies with no suspicion of 
 ultimate results, Canning underestimated the needs of the 
 present but saw farther into the future. 
 
 If Canning sanctioned no changes in the framework of the 
 
I02 Life of Canning 
 
 body politic, how did he regard the popular elements in the 
 Constitution ? He was the last to sanction abuses in venal 
 and corrupt boroughs, and would in extreme cases disfranchise 
 such constituencies. But in the main he trusted that a sound 
 well-informed and healthy public opinion, diffused throughout 
 every polling district, would act as the leaven and remedy of 
 corruption. Whenever the popular wish was loudly expressed. 
 Tadpole and Taper would not dare to oppose it. In the year 
 1784, when the old iniquitous system of bribery was at its 
 height, Pitt had been returned to power in the face of the gold 
 and the influence of the Whig connection. Though the 
 Crown-influence may have carried many constituencies, public 
 opinion had forced its way through channels hitherto choked 
 with corruption and venality. Pitt was Canning's master 
 and no doubt transmitted the lesson. To the people Canning 
 would grant anything save more direct representation. The 
 last to despise popular representation where it existed, he was 
 the last to wish to extend it where it did not exist. If public 
 opinion was influential and articulate, he believed no minister 
 could fail to interpret the upright sense of the nation itself 
 The springs and motives of ministerial action, as well as the 
 action itself, must be criticized by the people, who went hand 
 in hand with their representatives and the executive in 
 weighing the propriety of measures. He did much to extend 
 and create a popular interest in affairs by the liberal publica- 
 tion of state papers, and by his popular progresses and 
 circuits. He was the first minister of importance who 
 habitually delivered addresses to his constituents. He was 
 the first Foreign Secretary who elaborately explained and ex- 
 pounded his policy beyond the four walls of St. Stephen's. 
 To the demagogue and the agitator he opposed himself as a 
 popular Minister of the Crown, regarding himself as specially 
 the choice of the people, confiding in them and reconciling 
 power with liberty. 
 
 The Press of the early nineteenth century was personal and 
 savage, where the modern journal is only humorous or sensa- 
 tional. No man was at one time more persistently misrepre- 
 sented or vilified in the papers than Canning, yet none ever 
 uttered a more eloquent eulogy of the Fourth Estate. " What 
 should we think," said he, " of a philosopher who in writing . . . 
 a treatise on naval architecture and the theory of navigation, 
 should omit wholly from his calculation that new and mighty 
 power — new at least in the application of its might — which 
 walks the water like a giant rejoicing in his course, — stem- 
 
Cannings Political Creed 103 
 
 ming alike the tempest and the tide ; — accelerating intercourse, 
 shortening distances, — creating, as it were, unexpected neigh- 
 bourhoods and new combinations of social and commercial 
 relations, — and giving to the fickleness of winds and the faith- 
 lessness of waves the certainty and steadiness of a highway 
 upon the land ? Such a writer though he might describe the 
 ship correctly, though he might show from what quarters the 
 winds of heaven blow, would be surely an incurious and an 
 idle spectator of the progress of nautical science, who did not 
 see in the power of steam a corrective of all former calculations. 
 So in political science, he who speculating on the British 
 Constitution, should content himself with marking the dis- 
 tribution of acknowledged technical powers between the 
 House of Lords, the House of Commons and the Crown, and 
 assigning to each their separate provinces — to the Lords their 
 legislative authority, to the Crown its veto (how often used ?) 
 to the House of Commons its power of stopping supplies (how 
 often in fact necessary to be resorted to ?) — and should think 
 that he had thus described the British Constitution as it acts 
 and as it is influenced in its action ; but should omit from his 
 enumeration that mighty power of Public Opinion, embodied 
 in a Free Press, which pervades and checks and perhaps in 
 the last resort, nearly governs the whole ; such a man would, 
 surely, give but- an imperfect view of the government of 
 England as it is now modified, and would greatly under-rate 
 the counteracting influences against which that of the execu- 
 tive power has to contend." Does our preference of admira- 
 tion incline to the exquisitely appropriate illustration, or to 
 the practical wisdom which sees through the constitutional 
 fictions of Blackstone and Delolme ? 
 
 Towards the end of his life Canning's endeavours met with 
 an intoxicating reward. No foreign minister was ever so 
 popular as he during his later years, none was ever so com- 
 pletely identified with the best and noblest instincts of the 
 nation. This is the more remarkable because his view of the 
 duties of a minister is very different from that prevalent 
 to-day. So speedy is modern development, so quick the 
 spread of new ideas, that consistency must now depend as 
 much on circumstance as on character, and opportunism in a 
 base or noble form must be the one principle from which no 
 statesman can afford to depart. Democracy is based in the 
 main upon noble ideals, but with its infinite possibilities many 
 dangers must co-exist. It is certain that the people must 
 now always determine the end, however a minister may 
 
104 Life of Canning 
 
 determine the means. At the beginning of last century 
 statesmen were of a sterner and nobler mould, in proportion 
 as the people were less alert, active and educated. Both 
 Pitt and Canning combined a sturdy independence of 
 judgment with a true insight into popular needs. Of his 
 honour no man was more jealous than Canning, and he held 
 it a gross betrayal of trust for a minister to yield to popular 
 clamour what his own deliberate judgment condemned. No 
 contrast can be greater than between him and Peel. The 
 one was a Tory with liberal leanings, firm to obstinacy in 
 his views, and not afraid to double Resignation-Point. The 
 other was a Tory of Tories yet an unrivalled tactician, 
 willing and able to comply with the popular wishes, but 
 too prone to sacrifice convictions not to his own but to 
 the public needs. Modern politicians must always be 
 tempted to follow Peel rather than bethink themselves of 
 Canning. For whereas the one tacked and steered in de- 
 ference to the gusts and currents of popular feeling, the 
 other was guided by the fixed and eternal stars often into 
 the very teeth of wind and wave. 
 
 " The business of the reformer or legislator," said Canning, 
 " is to redress practical grievances, not to run after theoretical 
 perfection." Thus, though an enemy to alterations in the 
 framework of the Constitution in deference to what he 
 believed to be idle theory, he was the eager advocate of wise 
 and liberal legislation. The ideal of the stock Tory of the 
 day was, that we being, if anything, inferior to our fathers, 
 required no more laws than they ; a process of thought which 
 would have eventually converted his countrymen into Chinese. 
 Above everything, the nineteenth century has been a legis- 
 lative age, not only in England, but throughout the world. 
 Canning followed Pitt in being one of the first English states- 
 men to recognize this. New conditions and circumstances 
 demanded new remedies, new adjustments, and new laws. 
 To most of the grievances of the day Canning was willing to 
 apply legislative physic. The Slave-trade, our Economic and 
 Colonial Policy, our Administrative System, all these must 
 be reformed, improved, and revised. Most of these questions 
 fall rather within the scope of foreign policy than domestic 
 legislation. But the two great domestic evils of the day were 
 the Test Act, and the refusal of the rights of citizenship to 
 the Catholics. It is characteristic of Canning that he op- 
 posed the repeal of the former Statute just as vigorously as 
 he advocated Catholic emancipation. The Test Act was 
 
Cannings Political Creed , 105 
 
 always evaded in practice, and Dissenters suffered only 
 technical grievances, whereas the Catholics groaned beneath 
 a very practical injustice. It is difficult for us to realize that 
 but a century ago, millions of Irishmen and thousands of 
 Englishmen were not only cut off from all hope of attaining 
 the most valued prizes of public life — batons and ermine and 
 coronets — but were debarred the privileges of citizens, and 
 even the rights of men. To punish individuals for conscience 
 sake, to offer them the means of earthly advancement as the 
 price of betraying their spiritual convictions, were ingenuities 
 of mental torture as hideous as the more material fires and 
 racks of the Inquisition. In no cause was Canning's voice 
 more earnestly or more eloquently upraised than on behalf of 
 Catholic emancipation, and this was the more honourable to 
 him because his advocacy was entirely disinterested. He 
 never negotiated with Irish leaders or with their ecclesiastics, 
 he had no Irish following ; justice, not interest, was the spur 
 of his enthusiasm. In his early days he had advocated the 
 legislative union of England and Ireland. Pitt concealed the 
 gross and odious bribery by which Castlereagh and Corn- 
 wallis carried the Union, and allowed Canning, who in this 
 matter was not in his confidence, to tell the Commons that 
 the charges of corruption were at least not proven. More- 
 over, Canning boldly asserted that emancipation was to be 
 the certain accompaniment of Union. Had his advice been 
 followed, the cloud of hatred, suspicion and dissension, created 
 by the Union, might have dissolved and broken into the 
 gracious rain and healing dew of mercy. Pitt, no doubt, 
 desired emancipation in all sincerity, but he allowed such 
 promises to be made without contradiction, and * yet himself 
 abstained from giving any definite pledge. On one occasion, 
 he discussed the subject in the presence of Canning, and 
 doubted the practicability of carrying both measures. 
 " Perish the Union rather than emancipation," said the fiery 
 young man in reply. To his enthusiasm for the Catholics 
 he was to make many sacrifices in the coming years. For 
 the sake of emancipation he many times sacrificed the 
 hopes of high office, for its sake he rejected the fondest 
 wish of his heart, that of representing his University in 
 Parliament, then and for long afterwards the orthodox 
 haven of bigotry and reaction, as Peel and Gladstone also 
 learnt. Finally, in the last act of his life, he did not 
 
 *v. Canning's Speech, March 6th, 1827. 
 
io6 Life of Canning 
 
 scruple to sacrifice to that cause both his health and his 
 strength, and even his life. 
 
 But though Canning did not live to witness the final 
 triumph of his cause, he contributed greatly towards that 
 success. In 1 812, he carried a resolution in the Commons for 
 the serious consideration of the Catholic question in the next 
 session. Though the measure of relief proposed was studi- 
 ously moderate, and securities were thrown in, sufficient to 
 satisfy the less exacting bigots, the Bill was thrown out in 
 committee. When Canning joined the ministry in 18 16, it 
 was on the distinct understanding that he should vote as he 
 liked on the Catholic question. In i8i8, he lent his power- 
 ful support to a motion, which threw open the chief posts in 
 army and navy to the Catholics, and which fortunately 
 became law. Catholics had already the elective franchise 
 though they could not elect a Catholic, and here was a 
 further advance in " the relaxation of this accursed system, in 
 the breathing of a mighty thaw upon that accumulated mass 
 of cold and chilling enactments, which, till then, had con- 
 gealed and benumbed a nation." On April 30th, 1822, he 
 brought forward a motion for the removal of the disabilities 
 of Catholic Peers, pointing out with his usual knowledge of 
 history that their exclusion was due, not to Reformation 
 principles, but to the special circumstances of the succession 
 under Charles the second. Referring to the then recent 
 coronation, at which the Duke of Norfolk had been Earl 
 Marshall, he made an appeal of deep and solemn pathos. 
 " Did it occur to the Ambassadors of Catholic Austria, of 
 Catholic France, or of States more bigoted in matters of 
 religion . . . that after being thus exhibited to the eyes of 
 the peers and people of England, and to the representatives 
 of the princes and nations of the world, the Duke of Norfolk, 
 highest in rank among the peers, the Lord Clifford and 
 others like him, representing a long line of illustrious ancestry, 
 as if called forth and furnished for the occasion, like the 
 lustres and banners that flamed and glittered in the scene, 
 were to be, like them, thrown by as useless and trumpery 
 formalities? — that they might bend the knee and kiss the 
 hand, that they might bear the train or rear the canopy, 
 might discharge the offices assigned by Roman pride to their 
 barbarian ancestors, 
 
 " Purpurea tollant aurea Britanni," 
 
 but that with the pageantry of the hour, their importance 
 
Cannings Political Creed to7 
 
 faded away — that, as their distinction vanished, their humilia- 
 tion returned ; and that he who headed the procession of 
 peers to-day could not sit among them as their equal on the 
 morrow?" The motion passed the Commons but was 
 wrecked upon the obstinacy of the Peers. 
 
 Never had the hopes of the Emancipators stood higher 
 than in 1825, when a Bill for Catholic Relief was again 
 brought forward and supported by Canning in a speech of 
 great eloquence and moderation. But Royalty suddenly 
 descended on the scene in the Lords in the shape of the 
 Duke of York, the looseness of whose private morality was 
 only equalled by the strictness of his public orthodoxy. As 
 heir to the throne he denounced the measure in the most 
 uncompromising terms, avowing his intention to oppose it " in 
 whatever situation it shall please Providence to place me." 
 His speech delighted the heart of every honest bigot in the 
 land, it was printed in letters of gold and sold broadcast, it 
 was engraved upon snuffboxes, worked upon handkerchiefs, 
 stamped upon pottery. The peers were so impressed by this 
 startling intervention from the steps of the throne that they 
 again rejected the Bill. Canning was bitterly disappointed for 
 his expectations had seldom been as great. Yet once more 
 in the last year of his life, though racked with pain and ex- 
 hausted with illness, he came forward to champion the cause 
 to which he had devoted his life. He again failed, but assumed 
 the premiership on the express understanding that an early 
 measure of relief should be carried. Had he lived, none can 
 doubt his ministry would have been rendered illustrious by 
 passing that measure. As it was, the ministry of Wellington 
 and Peel, in the vain hope of extending their term of office, 
 rendered themselves ridiculous by carrying that emancipation, 
 which they had so often and so bitterly opposed, and on 
 account of which they had refused to serve under Canning. 
 According to Frere many of the measures passed by Lord 
 Grey for the improvement of the Poor Law, Administrative 
 and Municipal Reform and so forth, would have had the 
 approval of Canning, and would have been carried by him had 
 he lived. But the measure, which even more than these, even 
 more than the Slave Trade or the Corn Laws, owed most to 
 his advocacy will always remain that of Catholic emancipation. 
 At first sight it might seem that the domestic policy of 
 Canning was a failure, for he died with most of his great 
 designs unfulfilled. On this side he was certainly greater in 
 legacy than achievement, but his education of the Tory party 
 
io8 Life of Canning 
 
 was a service of the greatest magnitude not only to them but 
 to the nation. Disraeli lived on his principles, Peel on his 
 practical measures, and even Gladstone, when "the rising 
 hope " of the Tory stalwarts, strove to realize to the full the 
 ideas of Canning. In domestic policy originality can hardly 
 be claimed for Canning, except in so far as he contrived to 
 put Burke into practice and Pitt into theory. His ideas were 
 essentially theirs, interpreted in a discriminating spirit and 
 adapted to new conditions. Despite his borrowings he was 
 of all our English party-leaders the most philosophic, the one 
 with the soundest grasp of principles, and with at least a 
 sufficient knowledge of their applications. Lord Acton 
 ranked only Burke above him, and Burke could never have 
 formed a party. The more we study them the more we 
 shall find that a full understanding of Canning's views on 
 internal affairs will explain his complex and illusive character, 
 and his still more complex and often misrepresented foreign 
 policy. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE TIME OF TRIAL 
 (1810-1822.) 
 
 From the moment when Canning resigned office in 1809 
 misfortunes never ceased to fall thick upon him for the space 
 of a dozen years. His private character was assailed, his 
 public services forgotten or only remembered and revived by 
 ill-infortned abuse of that exploit which posterity has acclaimed 
 as one of his chief titles to greatness. During this time he 
 made no appreciable advance in popularity, and lost much in 
 dignity and power. These years of disappoinment and mis- 
 representation told upon his temper and made him both 
 irritable and nervous. More than once he held within his 
 grasp the highest position in the State and on each occasion, 
 though Fortune was doubtless in a most capricious and 
 merciless mood, his own imprudence and hastiness were greatly 
 concerned with the-ruin of his hopes. He seems to have been 
 partly inspired by the example of his master Pitt, than whom 
 no more ambitious, independent and haughty minister ever 
 lived. The higher he had held his pretensions the more he 
 had been courted, the more intoxicating had been his triumphs. 
 Content with leading men he had never troubled himself to 
 manage them. Canning was conscious of abilities almost 
 equal to those of his master, and doubtless thought imitation 
 of his attitude the surest road to success. Herein lay the 
 germ of a fatal mistake. It was true that Pitt had never had 
 much of a personal following, and that Canning's own friends 
 were probably quite as numerous. But Pitt had the entire and 
 whole-hearted support of the king, and therefore all the nomi- 
 nation boroughs and patronage at his command. Moreover 
 he had the great advantage of being the solitary hope of the 
 Tory party, who supported him as the only possible alternative 
 to Fox. Canning was not the only man of talent on the Tory 
 side, and the Whigs under Grenville and Grey had abated 
 
1 lo Life of Canning 
 
 much of the old violence, which had disgusted the moderates. 
 Canning's views on emancipation had made him anathema 
 not only to the king, but to all the High Fliers and Ultras. 
 Eldon and Perceval, who led influential sections of the party, 
 were his irreconcilable enemies. Castlereagh and Sidmouth, 
 with their dependants, were openly hostile until 1812. Not 
 being of noble birth he was suspected as an adventurer by the 
 aristocrats, and had also the misfortune to be one of those 
 " confounded men of genius ! " The amazing brilliance of his 
 oratorical triumphs was thought to indicate superficiality and 
 frothiness. A reputation for levity and frivolity is easily 
 acquired but hardly cast aside, it is a coat which quickly 
 becomes a skin. Confidence is a plant of tardy growth, easily 
 uprooted by the whirlwind of popular disfavour, or frost-bitten 
 by the icy breath of slander. Canning's powers of ridicule 
 raised him enemies everywhere at a moment when he had not 
 a friend to spare. He was like the witty Duke of Buckingham 
 and his creditors, " He had his jest while they had his 
 estate." Whilst Canning laughed and joked and so made the 
 Commons distrust him, Castlereagh, Liverpool and Perceval, 
 who never ventured to scandalise the House with a witticism, 
 all passed him in the race for power. Canning's undoubted 
 success at the Foreign Ofifice was regarded as an accident, and 
 even this fortuitous triumph was gravely marred by his high- 
 handed oppression of the Danes ! So reasoned all the Ultras 
 and many moderate Tories. When we reckon all this jealousy 
 of Canning's avowed ambitions, all this hatred of his cham- 
 pionship of the Catholics, all this suspicion of his character 
 and attainments, we are only surprised that he was ever within 
 a measurable distance of success. 
 
 Even before Portland's death, when his span of office and 
 of life were obviously drawing to a close, Canning had 
 discussed possible future arrangements with Perceval and the 
 Duke. Canning had practically told Perceval that the 
 premiership lay between them. He suggested himself as 
 leader of the Commons, and proposed to compensate Perceval 
 either with a peerage and the presidency of the Council, or 
 else with the chancellorship. These negotiations certainly 
 suggest an overweening ambition, and possibly a lack of 
 delicacy and refined scruple on the part of Canning. But 
 they were fair and open, there was here no want of candour, 
 no suspicion of intrigue. Perceval subsequently revealed these 
 negotiations with singular bad taste and most unhappy results. 
 When Eldon, whose one principle was to retain the Great 
 
The Time of Trial 1 1 1 
 
 Seal for his natural life, heard the proposal to deprive him of it, 
 he became Canning's unsleeping enemy. Worse than this the 
 public formed its own opinion from these revelations, and from 
 the duel with Castlereagh, and suspicion of Canning's motives 
 increased. When Portland died the King sent for Canning 
 and consulted him on the formation of a Ministry. With 
 some bluntness Canning suggested that the most obvious man 
 for premier was Perceval, but professed himself willing to 
 undertake the task if His Majesty so willed It. The anti- 
 Catholic King refused his offer, and s"ubsequently described 
 this conversation as "the most extraordinary he had ever 
 borne part in." Perceval became premier over a cabinet so 
 weak and divided that overtures were twice made without 
 effect to Sidmouth, Castlereagh, and Canning. On each 
 occasion they failed because Sidmouth, reminiscent of certain 
 merry rhymes, refused to sit in the same Cabinet as Canning. 
 In 1 812 Perceval was shot by an assassin and the Ministry 
 shortly afterwards resigned. The Marquis of Wellesley was 
 asked to form a Government, and called Canning to his 
 assistance. Negotiations with the remnant of the old 
 Government failed, because they would not declare for 
 Catholic Emancipation. An atmosphere of mystery hangs 
 over the overtures then made to Grenville and Grey. The 
 last artifices of poor "Sherry" were exhausted in these 
 proceedings ; the Prince Regent was recognized, as he went to 
 see the Whig-leaders at Holland House, walking alone and 
 unattended at dead of night, muffled in a cloak in the true 
 fashion of conspirators. Small wonder that the newspapers 
 and scandalmongers buzzed and stung, when the negotiation 
 broke down upon pretexts apparently trivial and worthless. 
 We may believe, with Canning, that the real cause was that 
 the Prince Regent insisted on his right to name the first lord 
 of the treasury, a privilege the importance of which has been 
 shown. The proud Whig nobles as of old asserted their 
 " right to dictate to the crown and influence the people." So 
 freezing and cold was their attitude that when Lord Moira 
 and Canning, at the Prince Regent's command, made a last 
 attempt at negotiation. Lord Grey did not even trouble to 
 come up to town but contented himself with a haughty 
 correspondence from afar. 
 
 Eventually the old Government was reconstituted, and Lord 
 Liverpool selected as its head. His first measure was to ap- 
 proach Canning, of whom he was a warm friend and admirer. 
 Castlereagh, now completely reconciled, generously ofifered to 
 
112 Life of Canning 
 
 yield up the Foreign Office, but insisted that he himself 
 should lead in the Commons. Times had changed indeed, for 
 when Canning discussed prospects with Perceval in 1809 he 
 had not considered Castlereagh as a serious rival. Canning 
 described this offer of Castlereagh's as " the handsomest ever 
 yet made to an individual." The motives which led him to 
 refuse it seem to have been mingled and diverse. Three great 
 Parliamentary authorities warned him that to accept would 
 be inconsistent with the best usages of the House, and that 
 he should insist on the lead. He seems also to have feared 
 the possibility of friction with Castlereagh, and to have been 
 unable to bend his proud spirit to accept even the suspicion 
 of inferiority in the Lower House. Had he joined the 
 Ministry of 18 10 he would have undoubtedly been premier 
 on Perceval's death, had he now accepted these terms he 
 would have been Foreign Secretary at a most important and 
 critical period of England's history. Ambition rather than 
 independence made him reject the prize. The truth is the 
 Government was weak, he thought that he would prove to be 
 indispensable, and would be accepted on his own terms. 
 But by the grimmest sarcasm which fortune had yet launched 
 at him the Ministry was saved, because it was irrevocably 
 committed to the General and the measures chosen and 
 adopted by Canning himself The sword of Wellington 
 brought popularity to the tottering Ministry, and Canning 
 was lost because of the success of his own policy. 
 
 The one gleam of triumph, which shone upon Canning 
 during these gloomy years, was caused by his election at 
 Liverpool. In 1812 a number of influential men from that 
 city requested him to offer himself as a candidate. Canning 
 consented and stood as Tory representative with General 
 Gascoyne against the redoubtable Mr. Brougham, and the no 
 less redoubtable Mr. Creevey. Elections are to-day some- 
 times associated with a certain mild hustling and a qualified 
 scurrility, in those days fists and sticks often alternated with 
 the most poisonous slander and abuse. " I have myself gone 
 through the ordeal of a popular election,"* said Canning, 
 " without the accompaniment of mud and grenadiers. I was 
 not subjected to such striking proofs of favouritism, as those 
 idols of the people, the Whigs : my retreat was effected with 
 more safety than that of a routed cavalcade, who with laurels 
 in their hats and brickbats at their heels, bedaubed with 
 
 *May 18, 1819. 
 
The Time of Trial 1 1 3 
 
 ribbands and rubbish, were only rescued from their over- 
 whelming popularity by a detachment of His Majesty's 
 Horse Guards." Canning headed the poll on this first 
 occasion, and held his seat during three other elections, all 
 marked by the relative good taste and feeling with which they 
 were conducted. His fame and his eloquence excited the 
 greatest enthusiasm, clubs were founded in his honour and 
 named after him, and some of his most famous speeches were 
 delivered to this constituency. The effect upon him was no 
 less great for he learnt and studied the needs of a great 
 commercial and democratic centre, and the lessons were 
 not forgotten when he came to direct the foreign policy 
 of his country. Whilst in Liverpool he often stayed with 
 Sir John Gladstone, who sometimes paid the election ex- 
 penses. The room which he occupied is still shown, where 
 he would sit for hours silent and thoughtful, gazing out over 
 the sea, and dreaming of the destinies of England. On the 
 strand just beneath the window there often played a little boy, 
 who learnt his first lessons in state policy and his first im- 
 pressions of greatness from his father's famous guest, under 
 the shadow of whose great name he was bred. 
 
 Success at Liverpool, though pleasing to vanity, was no 
 real compensation for failure in more ambitious projects. 
 Yet Canning's eloquence was as great as ever, though the 
 magic of official authority no longer lent it weight. He was 
 an independent supporter of the Government, not scrupling 
 to denounce vacillation and inefficiency, never hesitating to 
 urge a vigorous prosecution of the war. His chief difference 
 with the Tories was in 181 1, when he opposed the Financial 
 resolutions of Mr. Vansittart. An over-issue of paper-money 
 had depreciated the coinage, and the Bank of England made 
 all its payments in notes. The Bullion Committee of 18 10, 
 of which Horner and Huskisson were the guiding spirits, had 
 advocated resumption of cash payments in two years in a 
 report full of economic wisdom. To this the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer replied by a series of Resolutions, worthy of 
 the most prominent place in Bentham's " Book of Fallacies," 
 which had for their object that the Bank should not resume 
 payments in coin until six months after the conclusion of 
 peace, the period already fixed by Act of Parliament. 
 Canning agreed with the principles of the Bullionists, and 
 with the conclusions of the Government. He thought a 
 sudden contraction of bank notes might produce alarming 
 effects, and that for the moment a declaration of opinion 
 
114 Zz/9 of Canning 
 
 would strengthen the foundations of the money system of the 
 country, and re-establish the credit of the true standard of 
 our currency. But this was seriously endangered by the 
 Resolutions in question, which were full of the most ludicrous 
 absurdities. One of them, for example, affirmed that a .^i 
 note and a shilling were in public estimation equal to a 
 guinea of full weight. On these and similar absurdities 
 Canning poured a flood of ridicule. It warmed his heart, 
 said he, to hear the Chancellor's belief in the truly heroic and 
 Roman virtue of the public. He compared this resolution to 
 the decrees of the Inquisition against Galileo. Despite the 
 edict of the Holy Fathers the earth continued to revolve 
 round the sun, and despite Mr. Vansittart a ;^i note and a 
 shilling remained equivalent in hard cash to five crowns. No 
 efforts of Canning were ever happier than these two famous 
 speeches on the currency, which are in fact unique and 
 unexampled of their kind. He illumined the driest statistics 
 with his wit, he flashed light on the most obscure and 
 enlivened the dullest and most inelegant of subjects. 
 John Bright caused the House to listen for the beating of an 
 angel's wings in the air, but Canning made the Commons 
 laugh whilst debating upon economics. 
 
 When Canning's followers began to dine fourteen and vote 
 twelve, his cause was hopeless. In 1813 Canning, with rare 
 disinterestedness and generosity, disbanded his party, that 
 they might not be hindered by connection with him. 
 Whitbread ungenerously declared Canning had left them to 
 shift for themselves. Byron said Canning reminded him of 
 Falstaff and his recruits, " I have led my ruffians where they 
 are all well peppered, there are but three of the hundred and 
 fifty left." Mr. Creevey said Canning's friends were " very 
 sore, but more because it excites laughter, and though jokers 
 themselves, they cannot endure any ridicule against their 
 own lot." These were idle and malicious calumnies, Sturges 
 Bourne and Huskisson at once took posts in the Administra- 
 tion, and when Canning at last joined it himself, it was not 
 before he had insisted on provision for everyone of his 
 prominent supporters. Now that he had become " a wander- 
 ing voice," he seems to have thought of abandoning politics 
 for ever and devoting himself to literature, rural pursuits, and 
 travel. This led him in 18 14 to commit what he always 
 regarded as the greatest blunder of his life, though he added 
 with characteristic chivalry, " if the thing with past experience 
 were to be done over again, I should act the same part and 
 
The Time of Trial 1 1 5 
 
 conscious of right I must brave the consequences." He had 
 been much troubled by the health of his eldest son, and was 
 about to travel with him to Portugal in a private character. 
 The Ministry heard of his intention and requested him to 
 undertake the office of Ambassador Extraordinary and 
 Plenipotentiary, to welcome the Prince Regent at Lisbon on 
 his return from Brazil. It was indeed peculiarly suitable 
 that the Minister, who had initiated the English defence of 
 Portugal and protected the Regent in his retreat to Brazil, 
 should be the Emissary to congratulate him on his return. 
 Canning hesitated and demurred but the Ministry pressed 
 the appointment on him and he eventually yielded. He was 
 welcomed by the merchants of Bordeaux and of Lisbon, who 
 saw in him the representative of the enlightened commercial 
 policy of Pitt. He failed in his immediate object because 
 the Prince Regent deferred his visit. When the Hundred 
 Days began, he did his utmost to get the Portuguese to declare 
 war against Napoleon, but without effect. His mind and 
 imagination seem to have been powerfully excited by the 
 memories and the relics of French occupation, which already 
 gave to Portugal a classic interest. In a speech delivered at 
 a banquet of English merchants at Lisbon held just before 
 his return to England' he gave full rein to his emotions. 
 " True it is," * he said, " that in this sterile and unpromising 
 soil was deposited the seed of that Security, whose branches 
 now overshadow mankind. ... I could not traverse those 
 mighty fastnesses of nature which fence this capital, those 
 bulwarks behind which victory herself retired to new plume 
 her wings for a flight more soaring and sustained. I could 
 not contemplate those holy ruins, amongst which I have been 
 wandering, where an awful curiosity pauses to enquire 
 whether the surrounding destruction has been wrought by 
 ancient convulsions of nature, or by the sportive sacrilege and 
 barbarous malignity of the foe. . . . without rendering a just 
 homage to the character of the nation which, by all that it 
 has done and more by all that it has endured, has raised 
 itself to a pitch of moral eminence so far beyond the propor- 
 tion of its territory, poptilation or power." 
 
 Canning returned to England to assume a place in the 
 Cabinet. The Catholic question remained an open one in the 
 Cabinet, each member being allowed to vote as he pleased on 
 motions for or against it. The territorial settlement of Europe 
 
 * Ap. 2, i8i6. 
 
ii6 Life of Canning 
 
 had already been arranged and ratified in formal documents. 
 There only remained therefore the personal question, as to 
 what Canning conceived to be due to his merits and what the 
 Government were prepared to offer him. Recognizing that 
 his bid for supreme power had failed, and that his party no 
 longer existed, he accepted the office of President of the 
 Board of Control for India. But hardly was he settled in 
 office than he was assailed by the Whigs, who were only too 
 glad to get an opportunity of retaliating upon the man who 
 had so often ridiculed them. On May 17th Lambton 
 brought forward a motion with regard to the Lisbon Embassy, 
 which was seconded by Sir Francis Burdett. Stripped of its 
 decorous circumlocutions, the motion really charged the 
 Ministry with perpetrating a job. It insinuated that the 
 Prince Regent's return had been an insincere pretext for 
 depriving the original ambassador of his place, and giving a 
 much larger salary to an independent critic of the Govern- 
 ment, in order to seal his lips and win his support. Canning's 
 reply was acknowledged as a masterpiece. He proved that 
 the Ministry had not depended on rumour, but had received 
 such emphatic assurance from the Prince Regent as to his 
 proposed return, that they had actually sent a British 
 squadron to escort him from Brazil. He proved that the 
 original ambassador had retired because of ill-health, and 
 that he himself had arranged to go to Lisbon in a private 
 capacity, before he received the offer of the appointment. So 
 much was this the case that he had previously engaged a 
 private house for which he was obliged to pay, though 
 compelled as ambassador to live at the official residence. As 
 for the question of salary he showed that it would have been 
 perfectly in order for him to have claimed a much larger sum 
 than he did, and that in point of fact his arrival had been the 
 cause of the most rigid economies in the expenses of the 
 Embassy, which contrasted most signally with the ex- 
 travagance of the previous year. The House was convinced, 
 and none ventured to continue the discussion except Acland, 
 who declared that this defence had thrilled through every 
 heart, and that he would have been proud to be so accused to 
 have been so defended. Henceforward none spake of the 
 " Lisbon job " except to praise Canning's speech, which may 
 be regarded as the classic reply to insinuations of a kind 
 which have in these later days happily become less frequent. 
 
 Some statesmen have shown such transcendant ability in 
 one department of state that other services, no less solid 
 
The Time of Trial 117 
 
 though perhaps less shining, are overlooked or forgotten. 
 No one thinks of the younger Pitt as a foreign Minister who 
 for some eight years acted as the general arbiter and 
 pacificator of Europe. Peel still lives as one of the greatest 
 of financiers, but two popular synonyms for policemen alone 
 serve to indicate him as the greatest of Home Secretaries. 
 The great services of Palmerston at the War Office, and 
 of Gladstone in promoting a general administrative reform in 
 all Government departments, are lost in the blaze kindled by 
 their more ostentatious labours. The popular method, which 
 thus persists in seeing but the most prominent characteristic 
 or service of a great man, cannot always be that of history. A 
 single powerful ray of sunshine, unbroken and unintermittent, 
 ends by blinding or obscuring the sight. The historian 
 should aim rather at a picture in the style of Rembrandt, 
 where a background of rich and luminous golden brown is 
 flecked with dazzling points of light. 
 
 Democracies have short memories, say its critics, yet 
 traditions of Canning's foreign policy still linger among us. 
 But even Macaulay's schoolboy might be surprised to learn 
 that Canning was one of the most eminent of those, who have 
 directed the affairs of our great Indian Empire from an 
 office chair in London. This is the more remarkable because 
 his position, as President of the Board of Control, was under 
 the dual direction of Parliament and the Board of Directors, 
 and his position was therefore anomalous and peculiar. He 
 had to defend our Indian policy in Parliament, and at the 
 same time to persuade a company whose business was 
 commerce to undertake wars, which were directly if not 
 entirely based on political necessities. Being the life-long 
 friend of Wellesley he had doubtless imbibed the large 
 imperial ideas and the farseeing views of that great Indian 
 ruler. Under Wellesley, the Directors had been brushed aside, 
 set at naught and even ridiculed by their imperious pro- 
 consul. But though the duties of the President of the Board 
 were rather those of control than initiative. Canning contrived 
 by the most consummate tact to get the real direction of 
 affairs into his own hands, without alienating or offending * 
 the Directors. There remained only the Viceroy — the 
 
 * That they had grown no more " Imperial" since the days of Welles- 
 ley is clear from a letter of Canning to Hastings, where he speaks of 
 them making concessions " for considerations affecting themselves rather 
 than their Empire in India." These and other unpublished letters quoted 
 below in Britt : Mus : 31,232. Add. MSS. 
 
1 1 8 Life of Canning 
 
 Marquis of Hastings, the quondam Lord Moira, the butt of 
 many sarcasms in the " Anti-Jacobin." With him at first 
 Canning was not wholly in agreement. As in all his views 
 of policy we find a desire to hold the balance, to strike the 
 mean, in this case between the policy of grasping aggression 
 and that of unjustifiable forbearance. He saw that expan- 
 sion was sometimes inevitable, and that war on a large scale 
 must on occasion be undertaken in the larger interests of peace. 
 Wellesley's work had been left unfinished and an army of 
 40,000 freebooters, known as the Findaris, made irruptions 
 into British and Native territory, which were characterised by 
 the worst horrors Oriental ingenuity could suggest. It was 
 needful to strike a decisive blow, for* "attacked, routed, 
 scattered in all directions, they would speedily collect and 
 congregate again ; as a globule of quicksilver, dispersing for 
 a moment under the pressure of the finger, reunites as soon 
 as that pressure is withdrawn.' Hastings advanced against 
 them with 90,000 men, and the subsequent war involved not 
 only the Pindaris but the whole Mahratta Confederacy, all 
 the princes of which either openly or secretly supported their 
 fellow freebooters. Hastings was victorious, the Pindaris 
 were destroyed, the Peishwa or head of the Confederacy 
 was deposed and his dominions- annexed, whilst the other 
 Mahratta princelets, with the kingdoms of Rajputana, were 
 placed under British protection. For the rest of his period of 
 office Canning devoted himself to consolidating the conquests, 
 and to developing the internal resources of the country. He 
 did his utmost to preserve the substantive independence of 
 the native states, and to enable them to maintain their 
 position. Further he did something to improve the commer- 
 cial relations between England and India. Among other 
 innovations he forbade the censorship of the press, a fact 
 which Anglo-Indians would now learn with surprise, and 
 natives perhaps with unavailing regret for the larger freedom 
 of a bygone day. He was the first to persuade the Directors 
 to appoint hardworking and distinguished servants of the 
 Company to the higher and more honourable posts, instead 
 of sending out officials from England, whose claims were 
 usually based on friendship with the Directors or influence 
 with the Ministry. Prominent among these appointments 
 were Munro and Elphinstone. The one became Governor of 
 
 * Canning, March 4th, 1819 — A valuable exposition of our Indian 
 policy. So great was his insight into the native character that in 1821 he 
 even argued against the abolition of the Suttee. 
 
The Time of Trial 1 1 9 
 
 Bombay, whilst the other received a high administrative post, 
 and both fully vindicated the confidence and insight of 
 Canning. That much of this Indian policy was due to 
 Hastings is clear, but Canning may certainly claim a large 
 share of credit and renown for completing the work of the 
 "great Marquess." How earnestly he laboured to promote 
 the welfare of India, and to strengthen its connection with 
 England may be better shown perhaps by a few glimpses 
 into minute detail than by a long and elaborate exposition of 
 policy. These will also serve to prove what has sometimes 
 been denied, that Canning possessed considerable adminis- 
 trative ability outside his special department of foreign affairs. 
 Early in 18 17 Hastings complained to Canning of the 
 excessively heavy postal duties and delays. Canning endea- 
 voured to remedy this, and after having vainly memorialised 
 Vansittart on the subject, eventually appealed to Lord 
 Liverpool and carried his point of lightening the duties and 
 accelerating the transit of letters. He considered apparently 
 that it was necessary to strengthen by this means the slender 
 ties between soldiers in India and their families in England. 
 Otherwise there was some danger of the soldiers assimilating 
 the climate and manners of the natives, with whom they had 
 " a frank cheery intercourse, whereas the civilians are regarded 
 with estrangement by each party." To take another instance 
 Canning wrote to Lord Liverpool (Sept. 16, 1818) "The 
 remittance of old Madeira home is the first precursor of the 
 return of the veteran servant whether soldier or civilian. They 
 remit it in bottles because they think the cask liable to 
 violation." England has just imposed a heavy duty on 
 bottled wine . . . Now is this worth while? How warmly 
 this is felt . . . you may judge when I tell you that it has 
 been currently suggested at Calcutta to resent the imposition by 
 a non-importation agreement. 
 
 *" These are little things, but great Empires sometimes hold 
 together or separate for little causes, and I confess I hardly 
 know whether I look with more fearfulness to the extent and 
 composition of the Indian Empire itself or to the tenure of its 
 connexion with this country. Such as that tenure is we 
 ought not to impare it, for any slight cause or from any 
 motive of small fiscal benefit to England." 
 
 *A verbal and hardly unconscious similaritv to this passage is to 
 be found in the speech delivered by Lord Canning on his departure to 
 his famous Indian Vice-royalty. The son, no doubt, well knew his 
 father's views. 
 
I20 Life of Canning 
 
 This letter shows alike Canning's patient forethought and 
 command of administrative detail. It reveals also that 
 perception, which is only found in the smallest and greatest of 
 men, the sense of the importance of trifles. 
 
 In the more general policy of the Government Canning 
 was willing as ever to take his full share and responsibility. 
 The years 1 8 16-9 are memorable in England for being a time 
 of more social distress and more governmental oppression 
 than any other period in the last two hundred years. They 
 synchronised with the White terror in France, and with the 
 measures by which Metternich ingenuously declared he was 
 " giving peace to the World." In England, where opinion was 
 more free, oppression was less stern, but it is little to boast 
 that a constitutional government avoided the extremities to 
 which convinced despots resorted. It was the age of the Six 
 Acts, that Whip with the six thongs, of the battle of Peterloo, 
 of the suspension of Habeas Corpus. Between 1809-22 five 
 hundred editors or writers were in prison. From 1816-9 
 public meetings were entirely suspended, and even the harm- 
 less academic oratory of University and College debating 
 societies was sternly suppressed. Freedom of speech only 
 existed at Eton, where schoolboys held debates on classical 
 subjects and denounced Castlereagh and Sidmouth under 
 the thin disguise of Sejanus or Tigellinus. The real causes 
 of disturbance in England were economic, the confusion 
 caused by the Continental system, by the extraordinarily 
 oppressive corn laws, and the depreciated currency. The loss 
 of employments consequent on the conclusion of peace, the 
 disturbed state of the continent, the bad harvests, the 
 enormous National Debt, the obsolete financial system, and 
 the tottering state of credit, all these were causes direct or in- 
 direct of that " ignorant impatience of the relaxation of taxa- 
 tion," which Castlereagh, with an equal absence of feeling and 
 humour, ascribed to the people of England. To these causes 
 of disturbance were added the machinations of agitators and 
 professional patriots. Some wild speeches were made, and 
 republicanism and communism affirmed. The mildest reforms 
 suggested were annual parliaments and universal suffrage. 
 Pikes were forged in Sheffield, workmen assumed ' le bonnet 
 rouge' of liberty and set off to smash the machinery of 
 capitalists, a plan was formed to storm the Bank and blow 
 Westminster in the air. Two cobblers and a butcher actually 
 did plot to murder the Cabinet as it sat over its wine, 
 after dinner. These realities or legends sprang either from 
 
The Time of Trial 121 
 
 physical suffering and misery, or from the venal imagination 
 of the thousand spies of Sidmouth. In the main the actual 
 responsibility for the revival of an outworn system of re- 
 pression, which interfered with the liberties without alleviating 
 the distresses of the individual, rests upon Castlereagh and 
 Sidmouth. The former was at this time the real ruler of 
 England, and advocated this system because it coincided 
 with his ideas on foreign policy. The latter was actually 
 responsible for carrying out the details of the scheme, and 
 promoted that manufacture of information and stimulation of 
 conspiracy, which will always accompany those systems of 
 government which base their ideas of popular wishes on the 
 reports of informers, which found their legal evidence on the 
 depositions of interested spies, and entrust the maintenance 
 of civil order to dragoons. 
 
 But Castlereagh and Sidmouth can shift part of their load 
 on to other shoulders. " Pound foolish " Vansittart, who 
 presided at the Exchequer, was probably of all modern 
 English financiers the most incapable. He was certainly the 
 last chancellor in the world to avert a commercial or economic 
 crisis by bold or vigorous measures. The extreme conserva- 
 tism of his finance, the obscurity of his methods, and his utter 
 inability to adapt his budgets to the changing conditions of 
 the age, make him indirectly responsible for much of the 
 confusion of this time. Upon Canning responsibility also 
 rests but of a moral rather than a practical kind. Placed as 
 he was he could do little to influence the Cabinet in 
 taking measures to avert financial distress or social calam- 
 ities. But he was so bold and so uncompromising a de- 
 fender of the repressive policy that contemporary slander did 
 not hesitate to describe him as a sort of hired gladiator 
 striking down all opponents, in order to ingratiate himself with 
 the Ministry. This was of course absurd, though it may be 
 that the passionate feeling of the orator led him into utterance 
 which he regretted in moments of calm. But no one can 
 study his political creed without concluding that this attitude 
 had a natural source in some of its articles. However 
 regrettable this confession it is one it is needful to make, and 
 absolution must be sought in the generally wise and liberal 
 tenor of his beliefs. But now cries of "Reform" and 
 " Republic," " Bread or Blood," echoed all around : had the 
 monster of Jacobinism been awakened ? Canning perceived 
 a really formidable movement, and resolving that Jacobin 
 incendiarism must be quenched at all costs defended and 
 
122 Life of Canning 
 
 agreed with Castlereagh's home policy. He failed to see that 
 the revolutionary fervour awakened in England in 1793 was 
 a passion and emotion of the heart, whilst the extravagances ol 
 1 816 were due less to disloyalty than to hunger, and owed 
 almost nothing to impracticable theories and almost every- 
 thing to the pitiless logic of facts. As in the days of the 
 " Anti-Jacobin " Canning's humour never left him. With his 
 usual skill he ridiculed the alleged sufferings of pretended 
 martyrs, among them the " revered and ruptured Ogden." 
 This man was as professional a patriot as Wilkes, with this 
 difference that while the latter had real and avowed 
 grievances to complain of, the former had to thank the 
 Government for doing him a service. Whilst in gaol he was 
 completely cured of a painful disease of twenty years' standing, 
 on which account he wrote a letter to the Home Secretary 
 full of the most abject expressions of gratitude. Yet directly 
 the healed and grateful Ogden emerged from prison he 
 declared that the weight of his irons had caused the disease in 
 question, from which he was still suffering the utmost agonies. 
 Canning's exposure of this her9 and his like, though it 
 brought down upon him the ill-formed charge that he was 
 callous to human suffering, was therefore a real public service. 
 It is only to be regretted that, in his general attitude during 
 these years, he should have persisted in reading " Jacobinism " 
 where he should have read " Famine." 
 
 For parallels to the event which next disturbed public feel- 
 ing we have to turn the page of fiction, till we find in the 
 conduct of Leontes to Hermione something of the vengeance 
 and brutality, which inspired George the Fourth in his conduct 
 toward Queen Caroline. That unhappy woman had early 
 become separated from her husband for reasons which the 
 character of the self-styled " first Gentleman in Europe " make 
 it needless to explain. It is not denied that the Princess had 
 many faults, she had no sense of dignity or of the obligations 
 of her rank, she was impulsive, bad-mannered and foolish, 
 though kindly and good-natured. In old days she had been 
 a great friend of Canning and his wife, had stood sponsor to 
 one of his children, and often stayed at Gloucester Place. At 
 her residence, in company with Sir John Scott and Perceval, 
 Canning had often borne his part in rollicking games such as 
 " Blind Man's Buff." Directly the two former came into office 
 they behaved towards the Princess with the greatest perfidy 
 and even malignance, taking part in the second Commission 
 of investigation upon her conduct, though both had denounced 
 
The Time of Trial 123 
 
 the previous '' delicate inquiry." Though the charges against 
 her were completely dismissed she was shunned by many 
 former friends, Canning almost alone to his transcendant 
 honour meeting her upon the old terms and with the same 
 kindness. In 1814 he advised her to go abroad and to live in 
 retirement at the court of Brunswick. This was the best 
 advice possible, and it would have been wise had she 
 adopted it in entirety. As it was she travelled over Europe 
 pursued by rumour and malice. These changes began to 
 have a serious meaning when she announced her intention 
 of returning to England. Directly he heard this Brougham 
 wrote in (Aug. 5, 18 19); "Her coming would be pregnant 
 with every sort of mischief (not to mention the infernal 
 personal annoyance of having such a devil to plague me 
 for six months)." Such were the expressions of the man who 
 posed as the chivalrous defender of persecuted innocence. It 
 shows that the Whigs were chiefly influenced in her defence 
 as a means for avenging themselves upon the Regent, whom 
 they hated for his abandonment of their principles. " Faction 
 indeed had marked her for its own," as Canning said. 
 
 Meanwhile a Commission had proceeded to Milan, which 
 returned laden with evidence based on the dubious testimony 
 of sailors, hotel-keepers, lackeys, and chambermaids, some of 
 whom could not speak English, whilst others had been dis- 
 missed her service or were influenced by hopes of gain. 
 George, now King, announced his intentions of seeking a 
 divorce on the ground of the criminal misconduct of his wife. 
 The combined hypocrisy and insolence of the demand of 
 this notorious profligate would be hard to excel, even if the 
 Queen were guilty and the verdict is " not proven." Minutes 
 and memoranda passed almost daily between King and 
 Cabinet. Ministers declared there was not sufficient ground 
 for a prosecution in the Courts, suggested that the Queen 
 should receive an offer of complete separation with a large 
 income payable during her residence abroad, and also 
 proposed to exclude her name from the liturgy. This minute 
 was forwarded on Feb. 10, 1820, and docketed by Canning, 
 with the reservation that he could not have agreed to the 
 omission of her name from the liturgy if any penal measures, 
 of whatever kind, had been in contemplation. For this omis- 
 sion there were precedents and it was at first agreed to by Mr. 
 Brougham, the Queen's official defender, whilst it must be re- 
 membered that the Queen is in England only the consort of 
 her husband. But all these eiiforts were in vain. On June 7th 
 
124 Zz/e of Canning 
 
 the Queen arrived in England, was received with a royal salute 
 at Dover, and frantic applause by the London mob. On the 
 same day Castlereagh brought down the famous Green Bag to 
 the Commons and moved for an inquiry against Her Majesty.' 
 On June 20-1 Canning spoke in the Commons, declared he 
 viewed the Queen with respect and affection and exclaimed, 
 ' So help me God, I will never stand in the position of accuser 
 to that individual.' He sought an interview with the King 
 and begged to lay down the seals, but the latter ccnceded to 
 him perfect liberty of action and implored and commanded 
 him to remain. He refused the office of Home Secretary, 
 and went abroad in August before the proceedings against 
 her Majesty began. In November the Bill was carried in the 
 Lords by the small majority of 9 whereupon Liverpool 
 announced the Ministry would not proceed with it in the 
 Commons. In December Canning returned to England and 
 feeling that discussions with reference to the Queen would 
 now be so much intermixed with the general business of the 
 session that his attitude could not be clearly defined, laid down 
 the seals. His view was undoubtedly correct, for the King 
 now entered upon a campaign of petty persecution and 
 insult * " of that type in which the royal veteran had already 
 reaped so many laurels." Even Brougham praised the* " noble 
 and manly conduct of Canning," whilst the public, uncritical 
 and full of chivalrous pity for the poor kindly persecuted 
 woman, lauded it to the very heavens. 
 
 It must be admitted that, from his own point of view, the 
 conduct of the King towards Canning had been disinterested 
 and generous. His Majesty may have been offended at 
 Canning's eventual resignation, and is believed to have sus- 
 pected, though most unjustly, that Canning had unduly used 
 his influence among the peers to throw out the Divorce Bill. 
 At any rate it is clear that he had conceived a violent dislike 
 towards Canning, and eagerly caught at the proposal of the 
 Directors to appoint him Governor-General of India. Canning 
 had deprecated the attempts of Liverpool to press him on the 
 King during 1821. He had been caught by the glamour and 
 mystery of the East, and by the vision of ruling over a hundred 
 millions of subjects. But just as he was to enter upon this 
 splendid and gilded exile a sudden and tragic incident 
 changed the destiny of Canning, and perhaps that 
 of England too. On August 12th, 1822, Castlereagh, now 
 
 * Brougham— Histl. Sketches— George IV. 
 
The Time of Trial 125 
 
 Marquis of Londonderry, whose mind had long been failing, 
 died by his own hand in a fit of madness. After much delay 
 Wellington and Liverpool persuaded the reluctant King and 
 the stubborn Eldon, and offered the whole inheritance to 
 Canning. At one time Canning had thought that to be in 
 office was " to tread Heaven's azure," and to be out of it to suffer 
 like Lucifer in the burning marie. But time and age had 
 brought disillusion, the Governor-Generalship offered a life 
 of ease and splendour, and a princely salary to repair his 
 damaged fortune. The labours of the Foreign Office and 
 the leadership of the Commons were immense. The Govern- 
 ment was as discredited abroad as at home. It required great 
 courage to face the European situation whilst little honour 
 could be expected. But with all these considerations in view 
 Canning resolved to return to the public service, and was thus 
 " restored to the labouring oars for life." " Ten years,"* wrote 
 he to Sir Charles Bagot, " have made a world of difference and 
 prepared a very different sort of world to bustle in than that 
 which I should have found in 1 8 1 2. For fame, it is a squeezed 
 orange ; but for public good there is something to do, and I 
 will try — but it must be cautiously — to do it. You know my 
 politics well enough to know what I mean, when I say that 
 for Europe I shall be desirous now and then to read England!' 
 The development of a system of foreign policy, so glorious 
 and fortunate for his country, amidst the greatest trials and 
 difficulties must be reserved for a later page. It must suffice 
 here to point out the purely internal aspect of the difficulties 
 with which Canning had to contend, his differences with his 
 colleagues and his sovereign. The Home Secretary, who had 
 hidden his head in a coronet to escape the ridicule which clung 
 to the name of Addington, had found equal odium attached to 
 that of Sidmouth and now resigned to the advantage of his 
 country, though he still attended Cabinet meetings. The 
 Cabinet still contained eight ultra Tories, two moderates, 
 and four ministers of liberal tendencies, all of whom para- 
 doxically professed themselves followers of Pitt. Of the 
 two men of strongest character in the Cabinet Wellington was 
 often, Eldon invariably, opposed to Canning. The balance 
 of opinion was on the whole against him, and he had often 
 to struggle against decided odds. His one advantage as 
 yet was the whole-hearted support of Liverpool, who was 
 dominated by the powerful mind of the Foreign Secretary. 
 Rush, the American Ambassador, tells how he was once at 
 
 *Nov. 5, 1822, 
 
126 Life of Canning 
 
 Canning's house when Planta was reading aloud from Gul- 
 liver's Travels. He got to a passage which described the 
 sailors " when the sea broke strange and dangerous, hauling 
 off the lanniard of the whipstaff, and helping the man at the 
 helm!' The reading stopped and silence ensued till it was 
 broken by Canning murmuring abstractedly and as in uncon- 
 scious reverie, " and helped the man at the helm" This he re- 
 peated several times and was silent. 
 
 Faced with such contrary opinions in the Cabinet it is 
 obvious that the attitude of the sovereign was under these cir- 
 cumstances of great importance. On the whole during the 
 early years he was decidedly opposed to Canning, whose diffi- 
 culties were increased by the fact that the King was not only 
 influenced by other ministers, but by foreign diplomatists. 
 Among these the most prominent was that fair ambassadress, 
 Princess Lieven, one of the most brilliant and talented women 
 of the age, well calculated to flatter and cajole the elderly 
 Adonis upon the throne. But by the greatest skill and tact 
 Canning eventually won the King to his views, and after 1825 
 had no more faithful adherent. From this time his ascend- 
 ancy in the Cabinet was assured. 
 
 George the Fourth has often been compared unfavourably 
 with his father, and there could in truth be no greater contrast 
 between two human beings. The father was admirable, the 
 son odious in all domestic relations, the one reserved his in- 
 trigues for politics, the other applied them impartially to both 
 private and public life. The one had a will of excessive 
 strength and moderate abilities, the other was utterly weak in 
 character but possessed gifts far above mediocrity. The one 
 in all public affairs was obstinate, ungenerous and selfish, the 
 other was not without a vague chivalry and fitful generosity. 
 Admitting in each case the great superiority of the subject to 
 the sovereign it might be said that Castlereagh was George 
 the Third with the seals, whilst the fourth George was Sheridan 
 in a crown. Such then was the monarch and such were the 
 colleagues with whom Canning had to work in his great task 
 of preserving the peace of Europe and exalting the fame of 
 England. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 CASTLEREAGH, CANNING, AND THE HOLY ALLIANCE 
 1815-1822 
 
 * " The mighty deluge by which the Continent had been so 
 long overwhelmed began to subside. The limits of nations 
 were again visible, and the spires and turrets of ancient estab- 
 lishments began to reappear above the subsiding wave." It 
 was unfortunate that the work of restoring the old institutions 
 whose foundations had been thus washed and worn by the 
 tide of Revolution fell in 1814-5, not to the creator of this 
 beautiful image, but to Castlereagh who could hardly frame an 
 intelligible sentence. Yet persuaston and" eloquence were 
 of all gifts needful to England's representative at the Vienna 
 Congress. Castlereagh's great aim seems to have been to 
 show that England was disinterested and impartial and by 
 this means to influence all the other states. His vague and 
 verbose phrases were not likely to stay the three great powers, 
 each eager for extension of territory and for the spoliation of 
 weaker neighbours. How could he hope to impress a 
 Congress whose leading idea was to build up military 
 monarchies to resist any future outbursts of Jacobinism from 
 France ? The great powers were provided with " flanks and 
 rears," land was assigned, without consulting its inhabitants, 
 to those powers best able to check France. In such a settle- 
 ment it was impossible for any Continental power to pay 
 heed to disinterested counsels not forcibly pressed upon 
 them. Considerations numerical, military and statistical 
 governed the Congress. The King of Sardinia seized Genoa, 
 the Austrian Emperor Venice, the King of Prussia got 
 territory on the Rhine, unnatural unions were forced upon 
 Norway and Sweden and Belgium and Holland. These 
 
 * July 7, 1813, Canning. 
 
128 Life of Canning 
 
 proceedings were all defended by the novel and absurd 
 doctrine of Legitimacy which, as Macaulay says, was " but 
 Divine Right brought back under an assumed name, like a 
 thief from transportation." It implied only that Kings should 
 be restored to their thrones, the old republics of Poland, Venice 
 and Genoa were destroyed and partitioned, the independence 
 and privileges of smaller states were mercilessly trampled 
 down. Castlereagh fell a victim to the wiles of Talleyrand 
 and the ambition of Alexander. He obtained only vague 
 denunciations of the slave trade from the powers not inter- 
 ested therein, and some half-contemptuous promises from 
 the despots to experiment in Constitutional Government. 
 
 Yet the claims of England to liberal treatment were as 
 great as her sacrifices had been. As Mahan finely says 
 " Those far distant storm-beaten ships, which the Grand Army 
 never saw, stood between it and the dominion of the world."* 
 England had not only swept the fleets of her rival off" the 
 face of the waters, but had completely destroyed the com- 
 merce and seriously injured the economic resources of France. 
 The Peninsular War was the first proof that France could 
 be repulsed, it showed as in a flash that nationality was even 
 stronger than Napoleon. Yet Spain herself, though she 
 might have resisted, could never have expelled the French 
 but for England, who armed, fed, drilled and encouraged the 
 guerillas, won all the great battles and took all the strong 
 places. Wellington estimated that, of 600,000 Frenchmen 
 who entered Spain, half a million never returned. The 
 addition of a force so large to Napoleon, after his Russian 
 defeat, might have changed the course of History. The 
 battle of the Nations might never have been fought, and 
 Napoleon might have ruled over France, the Netherlands, and 
 half Germany but for England's intervention in Spain and on 
 the seas. Last of all the English armies were the first to 
 invade French soil in 181 3 and shared with the Prussians 
 the glory of Waterloo. As Canning phrased it at Liverpool 
 (Jan. 10, 1814); — "That fabled deity, whom 1 1 see portrayed 
 upon the wall, was considered as the exclusive patron of 
 British prowess in battle ; but in seeming accordance with 
 the beautiful fiction of ancient mythology, he smote the 
 earth with his trident, and up sprang the fiery warhorse, the 
 emblem of military power." The martial renown of England 
 had indeed been triumphantly restored. It remains to add 
 
 * Mahan : The Influence of Sea Power on the French Revolution, 
 t The figure of Neptune painted on a fresco. 
 
Castlereagh, Canning, and the Holy Alliance 129 
 
 that England was the only great power, which had never 
 made a peace with revolutionary or Napoleonic France at the 
 expense of her Allies, which had never sought to profit by 
 international jealousies and disputes, and which had more 
 than once sustained the conflict singlehanded and alone. 
 
 Yet at Vienna her gains, except Malta and the Cape, were 
 little more than she had won at Amiens, the peace " no one 
 was proud of." A dozen more years of enormous sacrifice 
 followed, England not content with ruling the waves flung her 
 gold and her sword into the scale against Napoleon. Our col- 
 ossal national debt, hugely swollen by loans and subsidies to 
 other powers, demanded that commercial advantages should 
 be gained to compensate for this mortgage upon our future. 
 During the following years foreign nations did not hesitate to 
 disregard her, calculating that she was too crippled by debt to 
 resent such treatment. Yet Castlereagh surrendered Java to 
 the Netherlands and with it the trade of China and the Pacific. 
 But for the efforts of Sir Stamford Raffles, a forgotten Empire 
 builder, who selected and developed Singapore as a centre of 
 commerce which superseded Java, this concession might have 
 ruined our Eastern trade. * Talleyrand wrote from Vienna to 
 Louis XVIII, that Castlereagh was so utterly ignorant of mili- 
 tary topography and Continental geography that he wasted 
 most valuable time in instructing him, and the map of Asia 
 may possibly have been as little known to Castlereagh as 
 that of Europe.- Our one gain was that the Vienna terri- 
 torial arrangements rendered a renewed Continental blockade 
 impossible. But Castlereagh failed to give England an 
 adequate return either in trade or territory for her immense 
 losses and sacrifices in the common cause. It remains to ask 
 if Canning's influence would have been more effective. Of 
 the fame and rank of his country he was always excessively 
 jealous, and perhaps no minister ever so thoroughly identi- 
 fied our political and commercial interests in dealing with 
 foreign powers. To a keen insight into the needs of our 
 
 * Memoirs III. p. 15 et seq. cp. Napoleon to CMeara,— (at St. Helena 
 a very acute criticism even if not genuine). " All the other powers gained 
 acquisitions of territory and millions of souls, but you give up colonies, 
 ile de Bourbon to the French, whom you ought to make forget the way 
 to India. Why did you give up Java, Surinam or Martinique? Why 
 not demand Hamburg for Hanover ? Then you would have had an 
 Entrepot for manufactures — AH I maintain to be owing to the utter 
 imbeciUty and ignorance of Lord Castlereagh and his utter inattention 
 to the real prosperity of his own country. " (The whole passage repays 
 reading). 
 
130 Life of Canning 
 
 commerce he joined a sympathy with national movements 
 and aspirations. That he disapproved of the treaty of 
 Vienna in some parts is certain. The system of erecting 
 " flanks and rears " he is said to have condemned. Th*^ 
 forcible conquest of Norway by Sweden, assisted by a British 
 naval force and sanctioned by the powers, he said "had 
 filled him with shame, regret and indignation." He might 
 have protested against the shameless partitions of Poland, 
 never yet sanctioned by a European Congress. He might 
 have denounced the principles on which the Congress 
 chopped up, weighed, and parcelled out territory, he would 
 certainly have refused to acknowledge the theory of 
 Legitimacy. When we recollect the immense divergence 
 between Alexander and Austria at Vienna, we see that 
 means were ready to hand. The great results achieved by 
 Canning at a later date with much smaller resources indicate 
 his probable policy. On the other hand, though he would 
 almost certainly have been more successful than Castlereagh, 
 his efforts might still have been limited by the selfishness of 
 other powers, and he might thus have incurred some of the 
 odium which Castlereagh obtained in such unstinted measure. 
 
 But for England the territorial settlement, once arranged, 
 had less importance than the Alliance, now formed against 
 Jacobinism in France. Castlereagh described* this to Lord 
 Liverpool as a design to " make the Jacobins feel that they 
 cannot break loose again. . . . without being committed with 
 all Europe and bringing down again a million of armed men 
 upon their country." He declared he had tried to keep the 
 internal affairs of France in the background and make the 
 colour of our attitude as European as possible. "I have,a^^ 
 the same time, in order to soften the aspect of a treaty 
 which is necessarily directed against France, recognized 
 sufficiently the principle of concert with the legitimate 
 sovereigns, so as to mark that it is not against the govern- 
 ment or the nation, but against an eventual faction in France 
 that our efforts are directed." These are ominous words and 
 it is easy to see how the legitimist sovereigns, less disinterested 
 and more selfish, might interpret this Alliance. For the more 
 the concert and the cosmopolitan aspect was insisted upon 
 the more would they regard it as a league for the repression 
 of any popular outbursts or demands whatsoever. Other cir- 
 
 * 15th October, 1815. 
 
Castlereagh, Canning, and the Holy Alliance 131 
 
 cumstances tended to preserve this delusion, and Castlereagh 
 unconsciously acquiesced in the process. 
 
 Alexander nowcame forward with a proposed treaty of union 
 of a vague and mystic type. The Czar's character was far 
 beneath his talents and his consistency unequal to his abilities. 
 With the deep piety of a religious mystic he united the super- 
 stitions and the morality of a Tartar; to sentiments, often liberal 
 generous and enlightened, he joined the cunning, the selfishness 
 and suspicion of a despot. He is said to have received his 
 great plan from the lips of Madame de Krudener, an Egeria 
 little qualified by her relations with her Numa to impart the 
 counsels of religion and morality to the world. This treaty 
 protested the desire of all the powers to become branches of 
 one Christian nation to unite in harmony peace and love. It 
 was signed only by the monarchs of Europe, but the English 
 Prince Regent refused, as a ministerial countersignature was 
 needed to every public document, though Castlereagh assured 
 Alexander of his Master's sympathy and agreement with the 
 pious and sublime principles declared. This treaty was 
 afterwards known as the Holy Alliance, and was represented 
 as a dark and secret league of banded despots against the 
 liberties, not only of their own peoples, but of the world. But 
 its original intention seems to have been altogether mystical 
 and shadowy and due merely to the piety and self-importance 
 of Alexander, who wished to keep both himself and religion 
 before the eyes of Europe. Metternich despised it, Louis 
 XVIII jested while he signed it, Ferdinand of Spain and the 
 King of Prussia were alone sincere in their acquiescence. 
 That it resembled the league formed at Aix-la-Chapelle is 
 untrue and was in fact impossible, because in 181 5 the views 
 of Alexander and Metternich were completely divergent. 
 The Diplomatist then abhorred the Jacobin views of the Czar, 
 who actually talked of giving constitutions and forced 
 Louis XVIII to grant a charter, when the other expressed 
 his views on legitimacy ! It must not,* however, be forgotten 
 that this so-called " Holy Alliance " treaty had an important 
 retrospective influence, and did much to link together the 
 despots when they came to unite the forces of repression and 
 
 * Cp. Castlereagh to Stewart. Sept. 21, 1820. "There is another 
 bond (between Austria, Russia, and Prussia). I mean that of the " Holy 
 Alliance " under which discussions without limitation may be raised — but 
 to this alliance you know Great Britain was not a party." Metternich 
 used this treaty to draw closer the bands of union at Aix-la-Chapelle, 
 Troppau and Laybach. 
 
132 Life of Canning 
 
 bigotry in their Congresses at Troppau and Aix-la-Chapelle. 
 As yet, however, Castlereagh saw none of these tendencies, 
 and openly panegyrised the Holy Alliance in the Commons, 
 when it was attacked by Brougham, thus earning that 
 reputation which soon made him the most detested of all 
 British statesmen. 
 
 The real Holy* Alliance, if we understand by that term the 
 union of the continental sovereigns from 1818 onwards, 
 issued from Aix-la-Chapelle. The Congress had been called 
 partly for the purpose of withdrawing the Allied Garrisons 
 from France, and admitting her into the catalogue of nations. 
 The old alliance against Jacobinism in France was maintained, 
 but the opportunity was now sought for drawing the govern- 
 ments into what Metternich called a " moral union." The 
 agreement of the sovereigns would demonstrate to the revolu- 
 tionists of all nations the hopelessness of resistance, and a con- 
 gress of Great Powers would regulate Europe in the interests of 
 all. These ideas, however crude, were at least memorable as 
 the first practical attempt to form a general scheme of inter- 
 national politics. Though the intentions of the despots were 
 not wholly disinterested they were not altogether ignoble, and 
 certainly did not deserve the unmitigated hatred and detesta- 
 tion with which they have been treated. They aimed at a 
 settlement of the peace of the world by confidential inter- 
 course between the ministers and sovereigns of the Great 
 Powers. But with three despotic rulers it will be seen that 
 the league could only be contemplated as an alliance against 
 liberty, unless England and France — who alone possessed 
 representative systems — had a commanding influence. The 
 Holy Alliance being formed to resist all change must there- 
 fore oppose all improvement, it only represented authority 
 and petrifaction, and proposed to strangle all revolt against 
 constituted authority at its birth. Napoleon's absolutism had 
 at least a splendid side in its appeal to the emotions, its 
 enlightened views, its efficiency and wisdom. But Metternich 
 openly boasted that " Austria was not given to imagination." 
 Nor could any seriously believe that the supreme intelligence 
 of Europe was vested with the men who believed themselves 
 its God-given rulers, in Alexander a brilliant political apostate, 
 in Francis a commonplace country squire, or in Frederic- 
 William the most insignificant of kings. Despite the great 
 revolution the despots of Europe had learnt nothing and for- 
 
 * Use the term "Holy Alliance'' henceforward in this sense — the 
 union of Austria Russia and Prussia, after 1818. 
 
Castlereagh, Canning, and the Holy Alliance 133 
 
 gotten nothing, except their one saving grace of benevolence. 
 The paternal system of government has not succeeded where 
 strong local institutions or feelings exist, and for this reason 
 Austria has never conciliated or subdued Hungary. But the 
 Holy Alliance proposed a sort of patriarchal system of 
 government for all Europe, which could not have really 
 applied to those nations where free constitutions or strong 
 patriotic feeling still remained. These proved indeed to be 
 to Metternich and Alexander what Kossuth and Deak have 
 been to Francis Joseph. Metternich did not understand the 
 changes created by the French Revolution in the ideas and 
 hearts of men. He thought he could tear a page from the 
 Book of History, and destroy both the memory and the hope 
 of liberty. He believed that re-action could be permanent, 
 that new ideals and opinions could be crushed, and the world 
 again beguiled into the dreary inaction which characterised 
 the home politics of all nations before 1789. The Holy 
 Alliance was the completion of the system which would 
 secure this end. Gentz, who was the literary organ of Metter- 
 nich, thus described the Conference of Aix-la-Chapelle,* " the 
 intimate union of sovereigns, calme et constante dans son 
 action, is the counterpoise to the disorder which turbulent 
 spirits try to bring into human affairs : the nucleus of 
 organized strength which this union presents is the barrier 
 which Providence itself appears to have raised to preserve the 
 old order of society, or at least to moderate or soften the 
 changes which are indispensable." This then was the system 
 proposed and nothing is more certain than that it would 
 have broken down in practice and created more miseries than 
 those it sought to check. The Holy Alliance, despite Gentz, 
 neither calmed nor lessened the force of needful changes. 
 It tended — whatever its original ideas — to check the improve- 
 ment or education of the people, to enflame national feeling 
 and prejudice, to uproot and cast aside every fresh plant of 
 knowledge and wisdom. It attempted to close and dam a 
 stream of immense volume and power. But the waters soon 
 rose and swept away the dyke, carrying ruin and desolation 
 far and wide into districts the flood would never have reached, 
 had not the barrier served to gather and to concentrate its 
 strength. A wiser policy was soon to be revealed which, by 
 diverting the waters into fresh channels, used the very elements 
 of disorder and inundation to fertilize and irrigate the soil. 
 
 * Memoirs of Metternich III. 194. 
 
134 Life of Canning 
 
 The professions of Metternich were as yet studiously 
 moderate towards the ambassadors of representative Govern- 
 ments. All his unrivalled powers of address and persuasion 
 were employed to entrap the English minister into an assent 
 to those vague generalizations which could be afterwards in- 
 terpreted in his own sense. Castlereagh, as yet unsuspicious, 
 welcomed the proposed "meetings, displays, repledges and 
 reunions " as a new discovery in European government. The 
 public opinion of England could with difficulty be sought upon 
 this question, and Castlereagh's supremacy in the Cabinet 
 appeared uncontrolled. But at this crisis he was checked by 
 the most determined opposition in the Cabinet from the one 
 English Statesman who saw both deep and far into the 
 future, and foretold the dangerous engagements to which 
 England might be committed. On September 1 5 Castlereagh 
 lodged a vigorous protest against the idea of the Alliance 
 solidaire being used to support established power, without con- 
 sidering the extent to which it was abused. But immediately 
 afterwards we find him writing,* " Alexander suggests all the 
 powers of Europe being bound together on a common League 
 guaranteeing to each other the existing order of things in 
 throne as in territories, all being bound to march if requisite 
 against the first power that offended. I tried to present some- 
 thing which would meet somewhat his ideas which we could 
 present to Parliament" Whatever he intended it is at least 
 certain that he had provisionally agreed to a system of con- 
 gresses meeting periodically to settle the affairs of Europe. 
 He had also favoured an interpretation of the Ninth Article 
 of Vienna, which extended it from an agreement among the 
 Allies to suppress Jacobinism in France to a wider scheme of 
 interference or guarantee. On October 19, the Cabinet met 
 to discuss the general scheme. All but one agreed to the 
 adoption of the system Castlereagh proposed, though there 
 was some slight difference as to the modes and forms of the 
 public declarations. Butt Canning offered the most violent 
 opposition to system as well as to forms. To combine 
 against Jacobinism might be reasonable and sane, but to ex- 
 tend this to a system of Congresses to discuss and settle the 
 general affairs of Europe, was a new and most questionable 
 
 * Castlereagh to Bathurst Oct. 19, 1818, F.O. Continent 48. 
 
 t Castlereagh, Desp. XII. 56-7. Bathurst to Castlereagh Oct. 20, 1818. 
 Quoted by Fyffe. Bathurst was Colonial Secretary but wrote here, instead 
 of the under- Foreign Secretary, as the latter could not attend the Cabinet. 
 
Casilereagk, Canning, and the Holy Alliance 135 
 
 innovation. He denied the interpretation put upon the Ninth 
 Article of Vienna. " It would involve England in Continental 
 politics, whereas our true policy has always been not to in- 
 terfere except in great emergencies and then with a command- 
 ing force." He foresaw and foretold that this was really an 
 attempt to place the lesser States in subjection, and that the 
 meetings might be scenes of cabal and intrigue. Last of all 
 he stated as a popular argument " that the people of this 
 country may be taught to look with great jealousy for their 
 liberties, if our Court is engaged in meetings with great despotic 
 monarchs, deliberating upon what degree of Revolutionary 
 spirit may endanger the public security, and therefore require 
 the interference of the Alliance." Subsequent events proved 
 the astonishing insight of Canning. His opposition was as 
 strenuous as it was unexpected, and he stood absolutely alone. 
 Wellington says Canning was usually very silent in the Cabinet, 
 but if he gave an opinion adhered to it with extraordinary 
 tenacity, and argued with such heat and resentment that it 
 was impossible to avoid personal altercation if you opposed 
 him. We can imagine the flash of his eye, the scorn of his lip, 
 and his indignant eloquence on this occasion. Here no 
 intoxicating applause awaited him from supporters, no words 
 of his would ever reach the outer world, he stood alone in 
 the face of the whole Cabinet for principles to which he clung 
 and against a system whose danger he foresaw. His 
 prescience was extraordinary and its arguments disclose all 
 the leading tenets of what was soon and happily for his 
 country to be not only his, but England's foreign policy. 
 Even had he never held the seals of Foreign Secretary he 
 would deserve immortal honour for this protest at a moment 
 so heavy laden with the destinies of both England and 
 Europe. 
 
 The immediate success of Canning's action was very con- 
 siderable, Castlereagh's eyes were opened and he realized the 
 danger of secrecy and concealment, and of a system of inter- 
 national regulation so vague and indeterminate, which might 
 be construed into binding engagements for special purposes.* 
 Liverpool now wrote to warn him against secret agreements, 
 declared that discussions of such questions must be in the 
 British Parliament, and compelled even Castlereagh to 
 recognize the force of public opinion. This new influence is 
 seen in the public manifestoes of the Congress, which declared 
 
 * Nov., 1818, Wellington. Suppl. Desp. XII. '830. 
 
136 Life of Canning 
 
 their intention of respecting tlie rights of smaller states, and 
 suggested the assembly of meetings for maintaining the 
 general peace. But they expressly added that no such 
 meetings had been arranged, and no new obligations had been 
 incurred. Castlereagh had been induced to limit England to 
 vague promises of co-operation and sympathy with her Allies. 
 No unprejudiced person can doubt that Canning may claim 
 a very great share of merit for thus restraining the action of 
 England. It was not all that he desired, but it is equally 
 certain that but for his bold and resolute stand Castlereagh 
 would have bound England, if not to the Holy Alliance, at 
 least to the system of Congresses ; and thus incurred obligations 
 it would have been difficult to disclaim. Canning's suspicions 
 as to the proposed union are in fact the turning point of our 
 foreign policy. Henceforth Castlereagh slowly began to 
 assume a more isolated and resolute attitude in Continental 
 affairs. Hitherto Metternich had cajoled and dazzled him, 
 henceforth, though he was still devoted to the cause of order 
 and an enemy to all change, his suspicions of the Holy 
 Alliance increased, till they eventually broke out into open 
 remonstrance. 
 
 The true policy of England had always been that of non- 
 interference, with regard to the internal affairs of other countries, 
 from the days of Walpole. Pitt had rejected this policy after 
 1793) but Canning had clearly re-adopted it from 1807 to 9. 
 Despite great opposition and obvious disadvantages he had* 
 refused to interfere in the internal arrangements of Portugal, 
 to regulate the Regency which had directed affairs in the name 
 of the Portuguese crown, or to define its relation with the 
 irresponsible Juntos. All the evils of the French revolution 
 he held to spring from active propagandism, and the attempts 
 of France to force its own internal system upon other nations. 
 Each nation, he wrote in one of his earliest letters, had a right 
 from God to choose its own form of government, but not to 
 disturb other countries. Any attempts at forcible interference 
 with their internal affairs, unless in the case of direct peril to 
 the nation which intervened, were dangerous and opposed to 
 international law. Canning held that for these reasons 
 Napoleon was an outlaw and a tyrant attacking the Liberty 
 of the world. England had no more right to impose its own 
 constitution on other nations, than France had to press Re- 
 publicanism or Napoleonic despotism upon the world. When 
 
 • Portugal F.O. 67. Espy. Nov. 18, i8o8. 
 
Castlereagh, Canning, and the Holy Alliance 137 
 
 Lord William Bentinck and an English force were in Sicily, 
 and sought to erect a constitutional government (181 3), 
 Canning commented as follows : — " It was not because we 
 carried in our bosoms the image of our constitution that we 
 should expect to see it reflected in every other country . . . 
 But it could not be expected that sixteen thousand bayonetted 
 philosophers would suddenly produce the effect, which in 
 England had been the result of the Revolutions and the 
 accumulated wisdom of ages." He had grasped a truth which 
 few then understood, that governments can only be gradually 
 altered and improved, that violent and sudden changes are 
 often for the worse, and that any impulse or movement, to be 
 successful or popular, must proceed from the people and the 
 government itself Constitutions were the slow growth of the 
 character of a people, not card palaces erected in a moment 
 by hot-headed revolutionists or ill informed foreigners. 
 Attempts at external interference were mischievous, and 
 probably harmed the cause they tried to serve ; whether it was 
 a despot who intervened to repress liberty, or a republic which 
 came forward to proclaim it. Thus it will be seen that 
 Canning's previous policy and convictions led him to detest 
 congresses of the type proposed, and his foresight now told 
 him that, in the present instance, they could lead to 
 interferences of only one kind, that of a coalition of despots 
 against liberty. 
 
 On the other hand, Castlereagh's record at the Foreign 
 Office had not been a consistent one. Pitt had in later years 
 abandoned the policy of non- intervention, and Castlereagh 
 following him had rebuked, instructed, or lectured the various 
 Governments of Europe. He had intervened in their internal 
 affairs, he had agreed to the establishment of a constitution in 
 Sicily. Yet at the very same momentthat he sent a British 
 fleet to aidr^vreT}OTTrrtte^'ccH3qu&^^ he refused to 
 
 jretain th& Sicilian constitution, and suddenly revived the 
 doctrine of non-interference ! At the same time he approved, 
 of a secret treaty by which Metternich bound Ferdinand IV. to 
 maintain absolutism at Naples, thus consenting to a most 
 definite intervention. This idea is also expressed in the 
 following words : * "1 am sure it is better to retard than 
 accelerate the action of this most hazardous principle (liberty) 
 
 * Castlereagh to Bentinck, 1814, Desp. x. 18. Contrast Canning in 
 1821 (March 20th) " I see the principles of liberty are in operation and 
 shall be one of the last to attempt to restrain them." The date (1821) is 
 of no importance, for Canning's principles knew no change. 
 
 9 
 
138 Life of Canning 
 
 which is abroad." He had at least not opposfed th? repressive 
 policy of Metternich, and he viewed the riots in England as 
 part of the Liberal movement in Europe, and made little 
 attempt to hold the sovereigns to their promise of granting 
 constitutions. But from 181 8 onwards the intentions of the 
 Holy Alliance became clearer, Castlereagh began, to doubt 
 and suspect, and gradually to adopt the policy of non- 
 interference. The Congress at Aix-la-Chapelle seriously 
 discussed the project of sending a combined force to restore 
 to Spain her revolted American Golonies. Castlereagh had 
 already declared that his Government would give no sweeping 
 pledge in this matter. He now did his best to prevent an 
 application of armed force, but wrote to Sir Henry Wellesley 
 that the Powers had taught Spain to expect that * " they 
 Mould ultimately embark in a general negotiation, and finally 
 manage our scruples, so as to procure for Spain some species 
 of coercive appui." He seems to have made no open protest, 
 but merely to have used secret diplomatic means to avert this 
 result. This was little indeed, but was at least an improve- 
 ment on his previous policy. 
 
 No sovereign, who had been present at Aix-la-Chapelle, left 
 it without a resolve to maintain the existing systems more 
 firmly than before — and the flood of reaction overspread all 
 Europe. The impressionable Czar repented his former liberal 
 follies, and fell completely under the influence of Metternich's 
 system. Metternich saw revolution everywhere, even in the 
 Wartburg Festival, where a number of jovial and not too 
 sober students crowned themselves with laurel, and drank the 
 health of Luther and confusion to tyrants. This was used as 
 an argument to overthrow or modify the constitutions of 
 several smaller States ! The Austrian influence drew 
 Germany tighter in the bonds of the Confederation, and her 
 timid kings and pririces consented to the establishment of a 
 central commission of inquiry into "demagogic intrigues." 
 Students and professors were expelled the universities, 
 gymnastics were forbidden, as they incited to sedition, and 
 men were loaded with chains for uttering a rash word or 
 wearing a tricolor. Metternich disclaimed any selfish views, 
 all was in the cause of Europe and order. Persecution for 
 religious heresy had been the mainstay of government in the 
 age of faith, persecution for political differences was to be its 
 
 * Continent. 17. F.O. Records — quoted by Dorman II. 243, Nov. 30, 
 818. 
 
Castlereagh, Canning, and the Holy Alliance 1 39 
 
 corner-stone in the political Counter Reformation. The 
 Commission was the new Inquisition, the attacks upon books 
 and newspapers were the Index Expurgatorius. The temper 
 of the despots may be gathered from * a little incident. The 
 Czar was astonished by a revolt in one of his regiments, and 
 attributed it to the introduction of " The Lancasterian system 
 of education into the batallions." His brother despot, the 
 Emperor Francis, condoled with him and congratulated himself 
 on always having forbidden it. He had no objection to soldiers 
 intending to be non-commissioned officers learning reading and 
 writing he said, but any " general system of instruction was 
 highly objectionable." The Czar agreed and remarked mourn- 
 fully " C'est que votre Majesty a toujours agi beaucoup mieux 
 que moi." When these two despots were the leaders of the 
 Holy Alliance and were supported by Prussia, whom Canning 
 wrote down as " a downright Grenadier with no politics but 
 those of the drum-head and cat o' nine tails," it will be seen 
 that the Holy Alliance could have but one policy. 
 
 The great movement of Liberalism, which swept over 
 Southern Europe in 1820, flowed from many sources. The 
 clear intentions of the Holy Alliance, the odious system of 
 repression established everywhere, brought back the ideals of 
 the French Revolution, and even fond regrets for Napoleon's 
 enlightened though despotic rule. The arid wisdom of to-day 
 has discovered that Liberty means nothing, and therefore that 
 it was most foolish for men to strive after it. Had these 
 metaphysicians lived under Metternich.a rash utterance and the 
 inside of an Austrian prison might have convinced them that 
 Liberty offers some real advantages. But even if liberty 
 means nothing the supremely important fact, influencing the 
 whole history of these times, is that men thought and acted 
 as if it meant something. The Elizabethan heroes exhausted 
 their blood and their toil in their search for the fabled golden 
 city of Manoa, but an incident in their piirsuit of the unreal 
 was the destruction of the power of Spain. With a nobler 
 zeal and enthusiasm many now sought the fair vision of 
 liberty, and' in their search produced results far other than they 
 dreamed of If everything else comprised under the name of 
 Liberty were airy and impracticable, there were at least two 
 most definite and practical demands. The first was for 
 popular government or a representative constitution giving 
 large powers to the people ; the second was for external liberty 
 
 * Nov. 15, 1820, F.O. Austria 160. 
 
140 Life of Canning 
 
 or for the freedom of each State to manage its own affairs, 
 irrespective of foreign interference, and of attempts to control 
 its internal institutions or relations with other States. It will 
 be seen that the first demand led to the second, for when 
 Naples had a free constitution it was not likely to endure the 
 servility, to which Metternich had subjected its miserable king 
 Ferdinand. The Holy Alliance had shown its hostility to 
 all the smaller States, had interfered with their concerns, and 
 proclaimed that it would uphold Legitimacy and the existing 
 order. Hence when revolutions broke out in Naples and Sicily, 
 Portugal and Spain, the despots trembled on their thrones. 
 
 Even before the Liberal outbursts, Alexander had been 
 making overtures to draw closer the " moral union" of the 
 Great Powers, but when Ferdinand of Spain accepted an 
 extremely democratic constitution from the revolutionists he 
 redoubled his efforts. Castlereagh had gradually been 
 drifting away from the Holy Alliance since Canning's 
 warnings. But as late as Jan. 14, 1820, he wrote to Stewart 
 (his brother the ambassador at Vienna) : " The principle of 
 non-interference has been strongly laid down, but it has not 
 been put forward as an universal proposition." But the 
 proposals of Alexander for a joint intervention of the 
 Powers caused him to take a somewhat different attitude. 
 The famous State paper of* May sth, 1820, is the foundation 
 of all our subsequent foreign policy, as was admitted by 
 Canning himself As it appears never to have been printed 
 in entirety a summary of its contents may be given. This 
 State paper declares in, the clearest manner the attitude of 
 England towards Spain, and " her intention to abstain from 
 any reunion of the sovereigns or the appearance of surveil- 
 lance." It deplores the general danger and instability from 
 the principles afloat, and from the circumstances that several 
 States " are now casting their Governments anew upon 
 the representative principle ; but the notion of revising, 
 limiting or regulating the course of such experiments by 
 foreign council or by foreign force would be as dangerous to 
 avow as impossible to execute." Turning back to Spain it de- 
 clares some of the acts of Ferdinand VII. to have been "odious," 
 
 * Austria F.O. 148. Stapleton points out Canning did not describe this 
 paper as written by Castlereagh but as " found in the office." Many of 
 the expressions used strongly resemble Canning's own style, and his 
 curious description of the paper, whatever it means, certainly does not 
 imply that he knew nothing of it in 1820. But whether he actually wrote 
 it or no, the mark of his hand and influence is upon it. 
 
Castlereagk, Canning, and the Holy Alliance 141 
 
 and states that England would never consent to employ force 
 to reduce either Spain or her colonies. " If ever the dread- 
 ful moral contagion should extend to Germany, or the flame 
 of military revolt burst forth there * " England would never 
 consent to send her troops to suppress it. " After dealing 
 with these special cases the State paper again defines 
 England's attitude. She will not pledge herself beforehand to 
 any exertion whatever in Continental affairs. She does not 
 desire to abandon the Alliance, in the sense in which it was 
 originally understood at Vienna — that of guaranteeing the 
 territorial system of Europe. But political or general 
 guarantees a Representative Government cannot give " without 
 exciting a suspicion that they have made a surrender of the 
 first principles, on which their Government is founded." 
 England must act not by " the laws other Powers may think 
 fit to lay down. . . . but from those maxims which a system 
 of government, strongly popular and national, has irresistibly 
 imposed upon us." Finally it ends by reserving independence 
 of action, while hoping that the moral union of the Powers 
 will continue. England will not act upon abstract or 
 speculative principles, or accept any other construction of 
 England's engagements than that in which the original 
 Alliance was explained to Parliament. 
 
 This was the State paper, which was always referred to by 
 diplomatists as the landmark of all our future policy, from its 
 decisive severance with that of the past half dozen years. It 
 is difficult to read it without perceiving that it is merely an 
 elaborate statement of Canning's arguments in the Cabinet 
 on Oct. 19, 1818. He then stood alone, and Castlereagh was 
 surprised at his interference and his warnings. The deference 
 to national opinion, the uncompromising statement ofnon-in- 
 terference, the restricted interpretation of the Ninth Article 
 of Vienna, the dislike of the system of reunions, all these he then 
 expressed. Castlereagh took some eighteen months to 
 formulate and accept these views. As Canning left England 
 in August, 1820, and returned only to resign in December, his 
 active influence upon Castlereagh practically ceased with 
 this State paper. Canning's Whig admirers — who have 
 been followed by many historians — held that he suddenly 
 reversed Castlereagh's whole policy, when he accepted the 
 seals in 1822. The Tories and Castlereagh's advocates have 
 
 * That it should be needful to make such statements as this is of deep 
 significance. 
 
142 Life of Canning 
 
 perceived that the change in our policy took place before 
 that date, and have rashly assumed that Castlereagh* was alone 
 responsible for that change. The passage already quoted 
 frpm Castlereagh's own despatches, together with this State 
 paper, completely disproves this view. But some other proofs 
 of Canning's influence on the course of affairs from 1818-20 
 may be given. Besides his influence in the Cabinet, Canning 
 was present at Aix-la-Chapelle during the later part of the 
 Conference, and throughout the period acted as a kind of 
 under Foreign Secretary,! frequently advising and consulting 
 with Castlereagh. But the most important proof of his 
 influence, next to that already given, comes from Stratford 
 Canning, who records in hist Diary (28th May, 1820), "I 
 congratulated him (George Canning) on the line which I 
 knew had been taken (by England) with the Allied Courts on 
 the subject of the late revolutionary events in Spain, and 
 as I had reason to believe from a former conversation with him, 
 in obedience to his suggestions. " Yes" he said, we shall have 
 no more congresses, thank God! " " They were all very well for 
 such matters as the disputes between Baden and Bavaria, but 
 he had always been convinced that they would prove useless for 
 the settlement of any such dislocation as that of Spain. The 
 Emperor of Russia still had a fancy for them, and was 
 wanting the Allied Powers to agree beforehand upon 
 some plan of action in case of the King of France's death, or 
 any new explosion in the country." It is clear that Castlereagh 
 cannot claim originality for a change of policy, which was 
 urged by Canning in deference to principles and 
 convictions which he had put into practise at an earlier 
 period, while Castlereagh had seen fit to disregard them. 
 That Castlereagh would gradually have been led to" abandon 
 the Holy Alliance is probable, but except for the insight and 
 influence of Canning he would certainly have been soon§ 
 " entangled in the toils of concerts, which apparently mean 
 
 *E. g., J. A. R. Harriot. Canning, p. 83. " It was Castlereagh, and 
 Castlereagh alone, who prevented the international acceptance of the 
 doctrine of interference promulgated at Aix-la-Chapelle." No one, who 
 has read even the published part of Castlereagh's Despatches with 
 attention, can accept this. 
 
 t For proof of this v. desp. of Castlereagh's to Stewart Dec. 4, 1820, F.O. 
 148. Stapleton A.G : " Canning and his Times, p. 319." 
 
 J Life of Stratford Canning. S. L. Poole I. 291. This diary is a 
 contemporary record, not a recollection embodied in Memoirs. 
 
 § Oct. 28, 1820, Castlereagh to Stewart. 
 
Castlereagh, Canning, and the Holy Alliance 143 
 
 nothing but which are afterwards interpreted to mean every- 
 thing, and which might tend to embark England in a system 
 of measures, from which she must afterwards have to retire 
 with disgrace, avowing herself duped." 
 
 Piedmont, Portugal, Spain, Naples and Sicily were now all 
 in revolt against their sovereigns, and the Holy Alliance was 
 meditating action against them. The protests of England, 
 the inaction of France, and the difficulties of immediate action 
 postponed the proposed intervention in Spain. But the revolt 
 of Naples and Sicily had been completely successful, and their 
 king Ferdinand was now distinguishing himself by taking the 
 most dramatic and fervent oaths to a constitution, which he 
 never had the slightest intention of maintaining. The seeds of 
 the Congress of Vienna now bore evil fruit. The secret society 
 of the Carbonari, which extended beyond the limits of Naples 
 and openly worked for the unity of Italy, unfortunately gave 
 some colour to the plea of universal revolutionist propagand- 
 ism. Castlereagh had approved a secret treaty in 1815, by 
 which Metternich bound Ferdinand IV. to maintain absolu- 
 tism in Naples, and he now, therefore, consented to the 
 separate intervention of Austria, and announced that he 
 would not embarrass her, if she disclaimed all idea of 
 aggrandisement or of altering existing treaties. He con- 
 sidered the disturbances * " a sectarian conspiracy and 
 military revolt against a mild and paternal government." 
 But faithful to the State paper of May 5, he protested against 
 any joint-interference, though he approved of Austrian action. 
 This joint intervention, however, Alexander was unwilling to 
 abandon, and a conference of Sovereigns and Ministers was 
 called at Troppau. Stewart was sent from Vienna witht 
 " positive instructions to take no part, but to listen and report." 
 Capodistrias, the eloquent minister of the Czar, talked so 
 much of the new moral union for the peace of the world that 
 Metternich, who wished to crush the Naples disturbance at 
 once, grew impatient and requested him to "leave out the 
 parts where the Apocalypse showed itself" The more earthly 
 results of the Conference were embodied in the secret treaty 
 of J Nov. 19, 1820, signed by Austria, Russia and Prussia, 
 
 * July 29, 1820. Castlereagh to Stewert, F.O. Continent 43. 
 
 tOct. 20, 1820. Stewart to Castlereagh — " I shall be a complete nonen- 
 tity at Troppau. My presence may afford the countenance of England 
 openly which Metternich desires" Could anything be more humiliating ? 
 
 iCont. F.O. 43, also quoted by Dorman II, 286. 
 
144 Life of Canning 
 
 which more than justified all the fears entertained by Canning 
 two years before. It began with the usual phrases of unction, 
 expressing the wish of the three Allies to preserve civilisation, 
 justice and law under the Christian morality. It then 
 announced that signatories will not recognize any change 
 ordered by an " illegal " Government, thus placing the 
 doctrine of Legitimacy in its sharpest form. Finally the 
 Powers pledged themselves to a joint intervention in Italy 
 to give " liberty to the King of Naples." A more guarded 
 statement was made in the famous document of Dec. 8, 
 " the circular of Troppau," which affirmed the general 
 union and the resolve of the Powers to repress the move- 
 ments in Naples and Spain, because they were an infrac- 
 tion of the settlement of Vienna. They announced that they 
 would not recognize Governments begotten by sedition, and 
 could only treat with kings. They had summoned the King 
 of Naples to meet them at Laybach, " in order to free the will 
 of His Majesty." They reaffirmed in no obscure terms 
 Legitimacy and the Divine Right of Kings to grant constitu- 
 tions by their personal will, and to refuse them to pressure of 
 any kind. They concluded by declaring these doctrines to be 
 the legitimate outcome of the Alliance of 1815. Against this 
 Castlereagh immediately protested in a long Memoir, denying 
 the principles this circular proclaimed. He seems at last to 
 have decided to break off from the moral union with its vague 
 generalities.* He wrote to Stewart, " If they (Austria, Russia 
 and Prussia) will be theorists we must act in separation. I 
 shall personally grieve for any schism in an alliance to which 
 I am so cordially attached." But he adds, " better look our 
 difficulties in the face, than get entangled in the labyrinth to 
 which the protocols will conduct us." 
 
 But though Castlereagh had at last burst the bonds of the 
 Holy Alliance, he did not desire to reveal it to the world. He 
 feared the " open schism " in the moral union would encourage 
 the Liberals in all countries. Some parts of the Troppau 
 Circular, which had been forwarded to the Ambassadors of the 
 Three Powers, found their way into the Papers.! Castlereagh 
 
 * Austria F.O. 148. Dec. 17, 1820. 
 
 t Stapleton, Pol. Life I, 40, says Castlereagh made no open protest 
 against the circular. This is not true, he had protested, but only in private. 
 How long he would have deferred his public protest these quotations 
 may determine. F.O. 158, Austria, Jan. 19, 1821, he writes to Stewart 
 informing him of the publication in the papers, and bidding- him tell the 
 Allies "it was impossible to avoid these (public) explanations." Else- 
 
Castlereagh, Canning, and the Holy Alliance 145 
 
 then replied by publishing the famous note of Jan. 19, 1821. 
 This was a vigorously worded protest based on the State paper 
 of 5th May, 1820. But it aroused extraordinary interest and 
 notoriety throughout the world, as being the first intimation 
 to the public of the changed attitude of Castlereagh. The 
 divisions of the Allies were revealed to the world, and 
 Metternich was overwhelmed for a moment with rage and 
 fear, that the aspect of union would no longer give an appear- 
 ance of solidity to the Alliance. But the despots now 
 assembled at Laybach, with Stewart again acting the ignoble 
 part of observer and informer. Ferdinand was easily 
 persuaded to revoke his constitution, an Austrian Army was 
 sent to restore him to his throne, occupying Piedmont on the 
 way and suppressing the revolution there. A'Court, our 
 ambassador at Naples, now proceeded to enlighten his chief 
 on what Castlereagh had called the " mild and paternal " 
 character of the Naples government. The restored and 
 perjured Ferdinand IV. was the real agent of repression, and 
 frequently disregarded the advice of the ambassadors of the 
 Holy Alliance. But to the latter was attributed by the people 
 every act of government * " from the arbitrary arrest of the 
 criminals of State down to the order which shuts up the 
 schools and condemns the little misses of Naples to learn 
 nothing but sewing and embroidery, from the decree which 
 exposes any individual to ten years' imprisonment for posses- 
 sing a Gibbon or a Montesquieu, to that which establishes a 
 similar punishment for anyone making a party into the country 
 of more than five. . . . Thank God, England has nothing to 
 say to anything that is now going on." It is, however, 
 unfortunate that Castlereagh did not remonstrate, and A'Court 
 especially mentions the great effect a protest from England 
 might have had in Sicily. 
 
 England's separation from the Councils of the Holy 
 Alliance had resulted in an impotent isolation. At first 
 Metternich had been terrified at the rent in the hitherto 
 seamless garment, but he gradually recovered confidence. It 
 is the gravest condemnation of Castlereagh's policy during 
 these years, that t Wellington wrote to Canning from Verona 
 
 where he speaks of them as "being- forced upon us." F.O. 148, Austria, 
 Dec. 16, 1820, he says if the Powers did want to assert these doctrines 
 " might they not have been recorded in the Ministerial Notes ? " not in a 
 circular. 
 
 * Austria F.O. 159. A'Court June 6, 1821, to Castlereagh. 
 
 TNov. 5, 1823, Continent, F.O. 48. 
 
146 Life of Canning 
 
 " There is a very general feeling in the corps diplomatique 
 assembled here that England separated herself from the 
 Allies during the affairs of Naples very unnecessarily, (and) 
 that they experienced no inconvenience from such a 
 separation." The attempts of Castlereagh to prevent joint- 
 intervention were not successful, for Metternich did not move 
 till a Russian army assembled in Galicia to render assistance 
 to the Austrians if required. Lastly he failed to induce the 
 Holy Alliance to repudiate or modify their doctrines. On 
 May 12, 1821, these Holy Patriarchs concluded their confer- 
 ence at Laybach by issuing a Circular affirming their intention 
 to uphold the existing social order. " Useful or necessary 
 changes in legislation and in the administration of States 
 ought only to emanate from the the free-will and the 
 intelUgent and well-weighed conviction of those whom God 
 has rendered responsible for power." Again the Holy Allies 
 had proclaimed the Divine Right of kings and of " legitimacy." 
 Their practical application of these principles had been 
 shown at Naples. Their effect was now seen in a new 
 edition of* Marten's great work on international law, which, 
 applying these new doctrines to state-rights, sacrificed the 
 principle of national independence without which no law can be 
 conceived. The " Holy Alliance " denied altogether that the 
 people were the origin of power, a doctrine of all representative 
 governments, and had so far influenced thought and action, that 
 a great jurist had acquiesced in the doctrine by which Austria 
 had forced Ferdinand on Naples at the sword's point. In spite 
 of Castlereagh's open protests against the doctrines of Troppau, 
 and of his severance from the Councils of the Allies at Lay- 
 bach, they advanced more extravagant pretensions than before. 
 Castlereagh, while protesting in private, made no further public 
 response. 
 
 During 1821-2, the Greeks raised the standard of 
 independence against the Turks, and an assault on their 
 Embassy brought Russia to the. verge of war with the 
 Sublime Port. The disturbances in Spain continued to in- 
 crease, and thus rendered the reduction of her colonies to the 
 old obedience almost impossible. For 1822 Metternich 
 therefore designed an imposing reunion of the powers, and 
 another congress to discuss the European situation, at which 
 he desired the personal attendance of both Castlereagh and 
 George IV. " It was so necessary," wrote the Emperor 
 
 * Precis du droit des Gens. Vol. HI. c. II. 80. Gottingen, 1821. The 
 edition of 1798 lays down an entirely different doctrine. 
 
Castlereagh, Canning, and the Holy Alliance 147 
 
 Francis, " for good brothers to join hand-in-han^ for pro- 
 moting their common interests and the Welfare of Europe." 
 Castlereagh accepted for himself but diplomatically replied 
 that cares of State engrossed the sole attention of His Royal 
 Master, though of course the real reason why that indolent 
 voluptuary declined the invitation, was that Castlereagh did 
 not wish to compromise England in the eyes of the world, by 
 marking a too complete union with the Holy Alliance. The 
 instructions drawn up by Castlereagh (now Marquis of 
 Londonderry) for his own use at Vienna were his last act, and 
 on August 9th, 1822, he died by his own hand. 
 
 Few statesmen have ever been so assailed as Castlereagh, 
 the basest perfidy was freely imputed to him, and the 
 Liberals of the day regarded him as a kind of compromise 
 between Caesar Borgia and the devil. This has of late 
 produced a reaction in his favour, but the charges against 
 him are grave and many. His domestic record is almost the 
 worst of any notable English statesman, he was the chief 
 agent in the open and shameless bribery which carried the 
 Irish Union, the enforcer of an oppressive policy at home, 
 and, after His Royal Master, the chief deviser of the 
 persecutions inflicted on the unhappy Queen Caroline. 
 As for his foreign policy many contemporaries seriously * 
 believed that he conducted a secret correspondence with 
 Metternich, differing entirely from the public despatches and 
 designed to throw dust in the eyes of Parliament, that he 
 really agreed with the Allies, whilst publicly he protested. 
 There is evidence enough to require explanation and cause 
 suspicion but not to secure a conviction. Candour must acquit 
 Castlereagh of intentional deception. He had approved the 
 secret treaty by which Metternich bound Ferdinand to 
 maintain absolutism at Naples. He had favoured Metternich's 
 " system " of government. To the end of his life he absurdly 
 viewed the revolts in Greeceagainst Turkish tyranny, the Liberal 
 movements in Italy and Spain, and the riots in England as 
 parts of the same conflagration, and produced by the same 
 
 * Greville, Journals I, 105. A secret correspondence (often shown to 
 Metternich) does exist. But after 1820 it only differs, unfortunately for 
 Greville, from the public despatches in that its protests and re- 
 monstrances are more emphatic. The most important evidence 
 against Castlereagh in my opinion is that Sir Robert Wilson, a partial 
 but a very well-informed witness, seems to have believed in his perfidy. 
 V. letters in Ad. MSS-30,132 — passim — Greville or Bentinck one could 
 afford to neglect. 
 
148 Life of Canning 
 
 causes. " The monster Radicalism still lives in England," he 
 wrote to Metternich in 18 19. He listened patiently to 
 Metternich's lectures on the danger of employing men of 
 liberal opinions, and to his denunciation of Lord William 
 Bentinck's policy in Sicily, and of Sir William A'Court's 
 recognition of Ferdinand as a constitutional king. 
 His mind was naturally of a somewhat absolutist cast, he 
 liked confidential intercourse between rulers, and sometimes 
 held verbal communications with Metternich. His secret 
 letters to Stewart, of which some were shown to Metternich, 
 are full of such phrases as the "difficulties of responsible 
 government." Russia, he wrote, is neither " confined by a 
 parliament nor a free constitution'' To have approved 
 Metternich's 1815 treaty with Ferdinand and to have used 
 such phrases as these seems indefensible for a constitutional 
 statesman. The terms, in which he spoke of parliament 
 and our constitution to foreign diplomatists, were certainly 
 most ill-advised — and as we shall see — produced the most 
 disastrous results. He hated publicity in diplomatic affairs 
 and despised popular clamour. Indifference to public opinion 
 is sometimes the greatest of virtues, but its only justification 
 lies in complete success. Bismarck defied almost the whole 
 Prussian nation, but humbled Austria and united Germany. 
 Castlereagh over-ruled the popular wishes but neglected our 
 true interests at Vienna and so lowered our prestige in sub- 
 sequent years that England stood but fourth in a great 
 Confederation. 
 
 These accusations are heavy, but overwhelming evidence 
 supports them. Yet prejudice must not intervene, for Castle- 
 reagh was the minister of England and a patriot in his own 
 way, even if his views were narrow and illiberal. He seems to 
 have concealed more from parliament than a constitutional 
 minister should. But we must not assume that he intentionally 
 deceived parliament as to the general aspect of his policy, 
 because he did not himself foresee its subsequent tendencies. 
 From the time of Canning's first protest he began to hesitate 
 and from the middle of 1820 onwards he opposed the Holy 
 Alliance, though his action was criticized and even censured 
 by his brother Stewart. He was devoted to the cause of order 
 though, after Canning warned him that the " system " clashed 
 with England's interests and extended the engagements of 
 18 1 5, he gradually adopted a new policy. One of the greatest 
 difficulties, with which Canning had subsequently to contend, 
 was to convince Metternich and Alexander that he was in 
 
Casilereagk, Canning, and the Holy Alliance 149 
 
 earnest. Castlereagh, who had* vacillated so often between in- 
 terference and non-interference, between favouring and pro- 
 testing against congresses, found it impossible. In the midst of 
 his protests he always stopped to assure Metternich of his 
 complete confidence in the present intentions of the up- 
 holders of the Holy Alliance, and to say that it was only the 
 system and its tendencies which he feared. He approved or 
 at least winked at the Austrian intervention in Naples, which 
 was in effect that of the whole Holy Alliance. As his excuse 
 for not joining in the Holy Alliance was always the diffi- 
 culties and restraints of the English Constitution, Metternich 
 not unnaturally concluded that he hated and despised both 
 parliament and people. Both Chateaubriand and Metternich 
 persisted in thinking that his public and avowed intentions 
 were merely shams to amuse the English people, and that 
 he awaited only a decisive parliamentary majority to tear 
 oif the mask.t Chateaubriand spoke of Castlereagh's "instinct 
 for despotism and secret contempt for constitutional liberties." 
 Metternich dreamed of an English Ministry, with Castle- 
 reagh as premier and Liverpool and the other Liberals 
 expelled. I On hearing of his death he wrote " he was devoted 
 to me in heart and spirit, not only from personal inclin- 
 ation but also from conviction. He was my second self" 
 We know now that for at least two years Castlereagh's 
 policy had been directly opposed to that of Metternich, 
 and that he was deeply suspicious of his aims and system. 
 Castlereagh, vainly striving to convince the diplomatists of 
 the Continent of his sincerity and changed opinions, and dying 
 without having achieved success, is a figure tragic in its 
 impotence and pathos. 
 
 A miserable death and an amiable private character 
 cannot extenuate the failures of a statesman at the Bar 
 of History. Castlereagh was a man of courage and 
 strength of character. If not a great he was at least a 
 very able administrator and departmental chief In small 
 matters his firmness was often shown with great effect, 
 and he did splendid service at the War Office and in uniting 
 the Allies against Napoleon. Here his aims were perfectly 
 
 *It was this kind of policy Moore pictured not unhappily (allowing 
 for bias and satirical licence) in the line — 
 
 " Half goose and half vulture like Lord Castlereagh." 
 
 •J- Memoirs IV. 85. 
 
 J Memoirs of Metternich III. p. 555, p. 591. 
 
150 Life of Canning 
 
 clear and he never faltered. How is it then that a man of 
 his resolution should have pursued in diplomacy a course 
 so tortuous and inconsistent ? The explanation is that his 
 character was stronger than his intellect, his will-power 
 infinitely superior to his acuteness and perception. Poorly 
 supplied with knowledge and ideas and narrow in prejudice 
 he was unable to grasp or formulate great schemes of policy, 
 or to gauge the force of great movements at a time of un- 
 exampled turbulence and revolution. The hopeless confusion 
 of ideas,* prevalent in his speeches and in some of his des- 
 patches, seems to have extended in a less degree to his views 
 on la haute Politique, so that he looked to others for ex- 
 planation and advice. He groped clumsily in the dark, and 
 was forced to beg oil from others, to kindle the lamp of his 
 understanding. Thus at Vienna he was first influenced by 
 Alexander and then by Tallyrand, later he was impressed 
 by Metternich and then by Canning, at one time by his 
 hatred of revolution, at another by his love of country. Hence 
 his policy till 181 8 is a series of shifts and vacillations, in 
 which Metternich's influence is predominant. The next two 
 years are years oi slow estrangement from the " system," a 
 process initiated by the warnings of Canning. From 1820 
 onward, his position is that of the famous State paper of 
 the sth May of that year. Without Canning he would 
 probably have approximated to this change of policy, but 
 not without more delay, and not without further entangle- 
 ment in the mazy labyrinths of Metternich's generalizations 
 and plans of general intervention. His policy forms no 
 compact whole and is one in which no leading principles 
 can consistently be traced, though the measures of his 
 last two years were on the whole clear and determined. 
 " Away with the cant of ' Measures not men,' " said Canning 
 on one occasion, " the vain theory that it is the harness and 
 not the horses that drag the chariot along. If the distinction 
 
 * Bell says Castlereagh never drew up a despatch which Pitt did not 
 alter. The confusion in his speeches was not only in a few ludicrous 
 or isolated phrases as — ' men turning their backs on themselves ; ' ' the 
 constitutional principle wound up in the bowels of the monarchical ; ' or 
 a ' Herculean labour producing a Hercules ' ; or ' the level of loyalty slopes 
 the stream of hydraheaded faction kicks the beam' Creevey calls his 
 speech of 16 Feb., 1822, ' such hash as was never delivered by man — the 
 folly of it — a miracle. ... I thought I should have died when he spoke 
 gravely of the increased cleanliness from the increased excise revenue 
 on soap.' These absurdities are slight but useful indications, if we do not 
 exaggerate or press them too far." 
 
Castlereagh, Canning, and the Holy Alliance 1 5 1 
 
 must be taken men are everything, measures comparatively 
 nothing. I speak of times of difficulty and danger, when 
 systems are shaken, when general rules of conduct fail." At 
 the present time of peril the measures of Canning were likely 
 to be better executed by himself, than by one burdened 
 with Castlereagh's record of failure and inconsistency. 
 Canning had the intuitive perceptions, the humour, and the 
 imagination of a great statesman, in addition to a courage and 
 strength of will at least as great as that of Castlereagh. 
 Moreover, he was admirably qualified to awake and sustain a 
 popular interest in foreign policy. Yet it is difficult not to 
 feel pity for the unhappy and unfortunate statesman, who 
 has served only to enhance the glory of his successor, and 
 whose memory has been delivered to the execration of man- 
 kind. As Castlereagh's coffin was carried from the hearse to 
 its last resting place beside the tombs of Pitt and Fox, some 
 of the crowd raised shouts of exultation which echoed loudly 
 through every corner of the Abbey ! 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE CONGRESS OF VERONA AND THE INVASION OF SPAIN 
 
 1822-3 
 
 Canning accepted the seals of the Foreign Office, and the 
 leadership of the Commons, be^tween the 13th and i6th of 
 September, 1822. His attitude towards ' the Government 
 between 1820-2 has often been misinterpreted. It has even 
 been held that he refused to allow Liverpool to press him 
 upon the King,* because he disapproved of the Government's 
 foreign policy, but it is more likely that his deference to the 
 Crown was his sole reason for not wishing to re-enter the 
 Cabinet. He could not but be conscious that the Government 
 was slowly approximating to his views, though it is certain 
 his own private opinion could not have favoured their attitude 
 towards Austrian intervention in Italy. Indeed he avoided 
 specific approval, confining himself to large generalities, in a 
 speech on the conduct of the government on March 20, 1821. 
 He indirectly pronounced the doctrines preached by the Holy 
 Alliance at Troppau and Laybach as " foolish and pedantic." 
 " He saw that the principles of liberty were in operation and 
 should be one of the last individuals to attempt to restrain 
 them." But our best method of doing this was by absolute 
 neutrality, not enforcing our own constitution on other nations, 
 or supposing in the foolish spirit of romance that we could re- 
 generate Europe. Here is the sketch of that famous " system " 
 of holding the balance, with an equal hand, between the con- 
 flicting principles of Legitimacy and Democracy, which formed 
 the keystone of Canning's policy. That he already realised its 
 danger is clear from his comparison of it to " a plank across a 
 
 * Stapleton E. J. Correspce. I p. 9-22. His disapproval would in fact 
 probably have been an additional inducement to resume office and restore 
 his influence in the Cabinet. 
 
Congress of Verona and Invasion of Spain 153 
 
 roaring stream," and his mention of the attempts which might 
 be made to bear it down on one side or the other. Castle- 
 reagh, who had been forced by circumstances like the unwill- 
 ing schoolboy to learn his lesson, never seems to have realized 
 the new policy in quite so conscious or definite a shape. He 
 was content with merely marking the difference between Eng- 
 land and the Holy Alliance. Canning's policy when fully 
 developed was enlightened arbitration, Castlereagh never 
 showed a sign that he had advanced further than unen- 
 lightened isolation. 
 
 Early in 1820 Canning, who hated European Congresses, 
 had expressed a hope that there would be no more of them. 
 In the State paper of May 5 th Castlereagh had been so far 
 influenced by Canning as to accept completely the principle 
 of non-intervention and to dissociate himself from the Con- 
 gresses, and Canning's policy therefore only differed from that 
 of the Government in emphasis, foresight and vigour. Had 
 he himself indeed been at the Foreign Office it is probable 
 that England would have refused to attend at Troppau or 
 Laybach. But our envoys went only in the ignoble capacity 
 of spectators — who committed themselves to nothing. His 
 influence as a member of the Cabinet had been great, he could 
 hardly have expected more than he had obtained, for Castle- 
 reagh was at length, even if tardily, pursuing the right policy. 
 The principles were now good, if their execution was amiss. 
 There would be no return to the old system, and Canning 
 probably felt only that kind of disagreement and impatience 
 with the Cabinet that a cautious Radical to-day might feel 
 with Liberal colleagues. Wellington left London immediately 
 after Canning accepted the seals, so that he could not have 
 prevented our sending a representative to the Congress. Even 
 had he wished to reverse Castlereagh's policy completely, 
 whereas he desired only to strengthen and supplement it, 
 he could hardly have changed or altered a memorandum, 
 already approved by the Cabinet and sanctioned by the King, 
 and transferred by Lord Bathurst as instructions to Wellington 
 the day after* (Sept. 14) Canning had definitely accepted, 
 
 * The very signature of Bathurst to these instructions would prove this. 
 He was acting as substitute until Canning or another was appointed, and 
 could not have signed this document once the Foreign Secretary was 
 installed. As Wellington left London Sept. 17th and Canning declared 
 he had only been in office 48 hours when Wellington started — he cannot 
 have been in the Foreign Office on the 14th when the instructions were 
 despatched. He could not, therefore, in any way have controlled or 
 altered them. 
 
 10 
 
154 Life of Canning 
 
 and apparently before he had been at the office. But the 
 policy contained therein was modified by supplementary and 
 qualifying instructions from Canning, which were not all 
 necessitated or produced by additional information. 
 
 The Congress was originally designed to meet at Vienna, 
 and afterwards at Verona to discuss Italian affairs, from 
 which England meant to hold aloof Castlereagh's instructions 
 on Italy were that the English envoy should limit himself to 
 acquiring information, and to seeing that nothing was done 
 contrary to the treaties and existing system of Europe. But 
 Canning instructed Wellington to press Metternich for the 
 speedy evacuation of Piedmont by the Austrian troops. He 
 defined the attitude of England towards Italy as one of 
 "neutrality but not of indifference," and in a despatch of 
 later date he speaks of the Austrian interference as being* 
 " protested against " by England at Laybach, which certainly 
 seems to put a most Canningite construction on the attitude 
 of Castlereagh. On October 15 th Canning transmitted a 
 pamphlet to Wellington, which described the sufferings and 
 persecutions of the Vaudois in Piedmont. He instructs him 
 to inquire into the " grievances inflicted on this harmless and 
 meritorious people," and on finding their truth to make 
 representations. " Your Grace is to express the interest His 
 Majesty takes in the welfare of this Protestant community, 
 and to endeavour to obtain assurance for their good treat- 
 ment in the future, for toleration for their worship and respect 
 for their privileges, as the British government have in former 
 times thought it their right and their duty to require." These 
 last words show that Canning was thinking of that glorious 
 time, when the strong arm of Cromwell was uplifted in 
 righteous indignation to stay the persecution of these same 
 poor Vaudois, and when his famous Latin Secretary penned 
 the noblest of his sonnets against the " bloody Piedmontese 
 
 * Canning to Granville Nov. 8th, 1825. "We protested against armed 
 intervention in some sort at Laybach." But there is a much stronger 
 statement to A'Court (Oct. 31, 1826, Portugal F.O. 306) " Is it (a British 
 Army) required in Portugal as an array of occupation. Such as Austria 
 has sent into Naples and France into Spain? We protested against 
 the principles of these occupations, both of which were (in their 
 respective degrees) direct interferences in the internal concerns of the 
 occupied countries, and we cannot imitate what we have in the face of 
 the world condemned." The contrast of Canning's principles as under- 
 stood by Castlereagh, and as executed by himself^ is clear. Castlereagh 
 admitted the Naples intervention as an exception, Canning held there 
 were no exceptions. 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 
 
 I'roni the Portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence in NaitonaL Portrait Gallery. 
 
Congress of Verona and Invasion of Spain 155 
 
 and the triple tyrant," who had slaughtered the saints of 
 God. 
 
 Besides Italy, the subjects discussed at Verona were four, 
 the question of Spain, and the question of her revolted 
 colonies, the slave trade, and the relations between Greece, 
 Turkey and Russia. But the first of all — the question of Old 
 Spain — became so infinitely the most important at Verona, 
 that the others can be delayed till we consider Canning's 
 policy towards Greece and the New World. Ferdinand the 
 Seventh who had been restored to the throne of Spain by the 
 sword of Wellington andtheknives of hisfaithful Spaniards, was 
 of all monarchs of that age the most bigoted and contemptible. 
 Castlereagh described his character as " odious." It was a 
 Spanish saying that " he had the heart of a tiger and the head 
 of a mule." No one now thinks the weakness of Louis 
 XVI and the vanity of his queen the sole causes of the French 
 Revolution, or that the crimes of a monarch always pro- 
 duce the misfortunes of a nation, but few kings have been 
 responsible for more cruelty and misgovernment than Ferdi- 
 nand. After solemn vows to the constitution in 18 14, he pro- 
 ceeded at once to abolish it, and to imprison the leaders of the 
 Cortes or Parliament. The Inquisition was reintroduced and 
 absolutism restored in all its fulness, Ferdinand being com- 
 pletely in the hands of his courtiers and confessors. Mean- 
 while trade was at a standstill and all the Spanish Colonies 
 were in revolt. Having failed to induce the Congress of Aix- 
 la-Chapelle to aid him, Ferdinand began to amass troops to 
 be despatched to America. A revolt broke out among the 
 starved and ill-paid troops of the Army under Riego, which 
 rapidly extended into the provinces. On March 9th, 1820, 
 the terrified Ferdinand accepted the "constitution of 18 12," 
 which was extremely democratic and the product of visionary 
 theorists. The proposal of Alexander to intervene was met 
 by the English State paper of May 5th, 1820. Whilst the 
 Holy Allies were occupied at Troppau and Laybach, with 
 considering the Neapolitan revolt, Ferdinand' called the 
 Spanish democrats of 181 2 or Exaltados from prison to 
 office. They proposed measures for dissolving the monasteries 
 and confiscating Clerical property, which at once brought on 
 to Ferdinand's side all the reactionary and the bigoted, the 
 peasants who were attached to the Church, and the moderates 
 who hated extremes. But the Exaltados had the army on 
 their side, and in addition all the different sectional in- 
 terests and local patriotisms now awoke. Half the country was 
 
156 Life of Canning 
 
 soon in open or tacit rebellion, the Serviles or Ultraroyalists 
 in the North, the Exaltados in the South. The French 
 Government became alarmed at the near contagion of demo- 
 cratic principles. As a convenient outbreak of yellow fever 
 threatened a more material infection, they used the excuse to 
 mass forces on the frontier as a Cordon Sanitaire. This Cordon 
 for the exclusion of disease was increased into an army of 
 100,000 men, in order to threaten the democrats of Spain 
 and draw round them a sort of moral quarantine. Ferdinand, 
 whose throne if not his life were now in danger, appealed for 
 aid to Louis the Eighteenth. 
 
 Castlereagh's* instructions on Spain were ; — solicitude for 
 the safety of the royal family, observance of our (treaty) 
 engagements with Portugal, and a rigid abstinence from any 
 interference with the internal affairs of that country. It will 
 be seen from this, and there are many other proofs, that the 
 question of Spain or of armed intervention of the Allies was 
 not contemplated as the main or even as an important subject 
 of conference at Verona, and that Castlereagh had not realized 
 the imminence of the danger, — another and a last instance of 
 his lack of foresight. The main object of the Conference had 
 been avowed as the Turkish question. But in passing through 
 Paris Wellington saw Villele, the premier of France, and heard 
 enough to convince him that France seriously thought of 
 invading Spain, or pressing armed interference on the Con- 
 gress. He at once wrote off for additional instructions, to 
 which Canning replied on Sept. s/.f The answer is an 
 interesting illustration of the diplomacy of Metternich's school, 
 and of the insight of Canning. The Austrian and Prussian 
 charges d'affaires, armed with a document from the absent 
 Russian charg6, presented themselves before Canning and pro- 
 tested against the appointment of X A'Court. They requested 
 that he might be stopped, because of the hopes that it would 
 excite in the disaffected party and the colour which it would 
 
 * April 25, 1820 — to Sir H. Wellesley F. O. Spain 233 — He instructs 
 our ambassador to hint England expected ' such essentia) changes in the 
 (Spanish system) as would give the monarchical principles of the Govern- 
 ment its due force and dignity,' and to hope for ' a temperate government 
 free in its principles, but exempt from those seeds of turbulence and 
 agitation, which seem to be so deeply sunk in the constitution of 1812' 
 Canning would never have written in so peremptory and critical a tone. 
 This was but a few days before the famous State paper of May 5th. 
 
 I Verona F. O. Continent 46. 
 
 X Formerly British Ambassador at Naples, now despatched to Madrid. 
 
Congress of Verona and Invasion of Spain 157 
 
 give to the reports of dissension among the allies. " While 
 these gentlemen were speaking, the French charge was 
 announced and immediately declared himself ready to support 
 . . his colleagues." This separate arrival was " studiously 
 contrived," so as to impress Canning the more, as he soon dis- 
 covered. This collective demand was a monstrous one, and 
 worthy of the Holy allies, but Canning replied that A'Court 
 had already gone and tried to calm their fears. " I thought it 
 much better to treat the matter as lightly as possible," wrote 
 he, but the lesson was not lost upon him. He drew the cor- 
 rect inference that this implied some joint project of interfer- 
 ence in the affairs of Spain, and also from the conduct of 
 the French envoy, that there would'be some shade of difference 
 between France and the Holy Alliance. He recommended 
 Wellington to play on this feeling, and so avoid a joint declar- 
 ation. " But if there sh ould be a determi ned project of inter^ 
 ference bv'l orce O t * bV m en;^(^(? jm, the present stnigHejn "Spain. 
 so -ctTrnrmced a.re His Majesty's Government of the. uselessness 
 atTd danger of "anj^such^ititerferehce, so objectionable does it 
 appear "to them^jri principle, -and>. so. utterly impracticableHn 
 execution that, should the necessity arise, or (I would rather 
 z^fJff'WF opportunity shduld dffer~X aih to ihstructyour.iicasfi 
 atTWCE* frankly and peremptorily.to jdeclare_ that to any such 
 interference, come what .may, His Majesty will never^be'a 
 party." There was certainly no lack of boldness and vigour 
 irr these instructions, which threatened in diplomatic terms 
 that England would rather dissolve the Alliance, formed in 
 18 1 5 against Jacobinism in France, altogether than consent_tg, 
 interference in Spain. 
 
 The objects of the different Powers were these. Canning 
 wished to dissolve the system of Government by Congress, to 
 confine within due bounds " that predominating areopagitical 
 spirit," in which the Holy Alliance took upon themselves the 
 Government of the world. Alexander viewed Spain as the 
 headquarters of Revolution and Jacobinism, and sought to 
 win fame for himself by destroying the Spanish constitution 
 with the aid of his Russian troops, whose attention he wished 
 to distract. He argued on the analogy of Naples — if Austria 
 suppressed revolution in Italy, why should not he in Spain ? 
 The one desire of France, who had counted for nothing at 
 Troppau and Laybach, was to win renown by her actions at 
 Verona. For that purpose she was prepared for intervention 
 in Spain, but as will be seen her ideas on the form of that 
 intervention varied at different times during the Conference. 
 
158 Life of Canning 
 
 Prussia was, as always at this time, the humble slave of 
 Metternich who, though anxious for the repression of the 
 pemocrats in Spain, was divided between his fears and his 
 vanity. He was afraid that Alexander's project would increase 
 Russian power and authority, and anxious that neither France 
 nor the Czar should deprive Austria of the glory of directing 
 and controlling the Holy Alliance. 
 
 Wellington used all his powers of persuasion to convince 
 Alexander of the difficulty of the task he contemplated. He 
 declared it to be incompatible with the principles England 
 believed should be adopted by all countries, irrespective of 
 their political systems. The case of Naples had been excep- 
 tional, bound up with questions of treaty obligations and the 
 danger to Europe from the propagandist Carbonaris, but there 
 was no likelihood that agitation would extend from Spain 
 elsewhere. Metternich feared Alexander would take the 
 opportunity of first conquering Spain and then uniting it in a 
 strict alliance with Russia, and so would upset the balance of 
 power. Louis XVHI and Villele were unwilling that Alex- 
 ander should lead his army through French territory, but 
 were anxious to secure his assistance in case of their 
 own failure. The French envoy Montmorency therefore 
 asked if the Powers would give France their moral and 
 material support in case of war, and if they would join 
 her in withdrawing their ambassadors. Wellington de- 
 clared England could consider no conditional hypotheses 
 of this type. Alexander, seeing the difficulties of his own 
 project, declared he accepted the French plan to the full. 
 Metternich now intervened with a proposal to specify the 
 exact cases in which the Powers would interfere. The pro- 
 posal was embodied in a proces verbale, specifying the cases 
 which would produce joint interference ; — first, an open 
 attack by the Spanish Government on France ; second, 
 dethronement of the king, his trial or similar attempts 
 on him and his family ; last, a formal act attacking the 
 legitimate succession of the royal family. Also the ambas- 
 sadors were to present a formal demand for a change in the 
 Constitution of 181 2, to be made in notes presented to the 
 Spanish Government. They were to demand their passports 
 in case of refusal. Recollections of Castlereagh, as well as the 
 well-known solicitude of England for the safety of the royal 
 family of Spain, seem to have induced the Holy Alliance to 
 hope for the concurrence of Wellington. Metternich had 
 used every effort to win him over, and is even said, in the last 
 
Congress of Verona and Invasion of Spain 159 
 
 resort, to have attempted to overcome his resistance, by using 
 diplomatists of the type Augustus of Poland once despatched 
 to Charles the Twelfth of Sweden. But Wellington remained 
 firm and, to the utter consternation of the Continental diplo- 
 matists, refused to sign not only the proems verbale of the 
 20th Oct. but that of November 17th. They seem to 
 have been as startled as though Wellington had hurled a 
 bomb-shell at their feet. He submitted his reasons in 
 manly and energetic language* — "Experience has shown 
 that during revolutions the minds of men are influenced 
 by motives of party and faction, and that which is most 
 repugnant to their feelings is the formal organized interference 
 of foreign powers, and that the effect is to weaken and 
 endanger the party in whose favour it is exerted." He remon- 
 strated with the Powers on account of the "highly objec- 
 tionable" despatches, which they had agreed with France to 
 address to Spain, and because of their proposed withdrawal of 
 ambassadors. The British ambassador would have no part 
 with them but would remain at Madrid, to endeavour to allay 
 the irritation these hostile measures would cause, and to avoid 
 the evil by friendly counsel and assistance. So ended the 
 
 Congress of Verona. ^^ 
 
 What was the effect of Wellington's protest, and what was 
 the outcome and importance of the Congress ? Montmorency 
 stated in his official note of the 26th December that the 
 measures conceived and proposed at Verona " would have 
 been completely successful, if England had thought herself at 
 liberty to concur in them." It was indeed the first serious 
 shock to the Holy Alliance, which had disregarded Castle- 
 reagh's protests, since they had found the English attitude of 
 isolation no impediment to their suppressing the Neapolitan 
 revolt. But the opposition of Wellington at Verona had 
 been far more pronounced, vigorous and effectual than that of 
 the English envoys at Troppau or Laybach. Alexander's 
 projects were partly checked by him, though partly also by the 
 unwillingness of Villele to give a passage to Russian troops 
 through France. Wellington who, though a man of the 
 firmest character, was frequently deceived in matters diplo- 
 matic, even imagined that he had prevented the separate 
 action of France, as well as averted a joint intervention. 
 This was not so, but none the less the differences between 
 England and the Holy Alliance were not only revealed but 
 
 * Verona — F.O. Continent, 49. Wellington to Canning, Nov. 19, 1822. 
 
i6o Life of Canning 
 
 proclaimed to the world. The principles of the Patriarchs 
 had received the most emphatic and open denial, and England 
 was launched boldly upon her separate course. As Canning 
 wrote to Frere* Aug. 8, 1823 : " The Allies lament themselves 
 heavily at our separation from them ; and cannot for their 
 lives imagine that in disclaiming their principles we should 
 have said what we really mean, and should thereafter continue 
 pertinaciously to act as we have said. A little prudery, a 
 little dust for the eyes of the House of Commons they could 
 understand, and some prepared for it — but this real bonafide 
 disapprobation astounds them ; and this sturdy adherence to 
 it when nobody is by — when we might just lift the mask, 
 and show our real countenance to them without the world's 
 seeing it — this is really carrying the jest too far — and they 
 can tell us plainly that they wish we would have done, and 
 " cease our fuming." The history of all I could tell them in 
 two words — or rather in the substitution of one word for 
 another — for " Alliance " read " England," and you have the 
 clue of my policy." 
 
 The importance of Verona is therefore that it marked not, 
 as was intended by Metternich, the beginning, but as was 
 intended by Canning, the close of an epoch. This invests the 
 Congress and its personages with an interest half-comic, 
 half-pathetic. All the old world of diplomats and sovereigns 
 was assembled there to hail, as they fondly dreamed, the 
 auspicious birth of a union which would regenerate Europe. 
 Pleasure was mingled with politics, and singers and comedians 
 diverted "those other actors, the Kings." The Austrian 
 Archduke and Duchess — the Viceroy and Vice-reine of Italy 
 were there with a score of Italian princelings from the King 
 of Sardinia to the Duke of Modena. Ferdinand of Naples — 
 white-haired and stately, walked about the streets of Verona 
 with a long-robed Capuchin on either side of him. Metternich, 
 all smiles and bows, now displayed his irresistible address and 
 charm in the ballroom and now in the cabinet ; now he 
 organized a reception, now he dissuaded an Italian duke from 
 granting a constitution. He was ably supported by Esterhazy 
 and Nesselrode, by Lieven and that greater diplomatist his 
 wife. All the resources of beauty, as well as diplomacy, were 
 employed to cajole or persuade the Duke of Wellington. The 
 ex-empress Louise, now Duchess of Parma, chatted and 
 played cards with the conqueror of her husband. Even 
 
 * Festing— Frere, p. 257. 
 
Congress of Verona and Invasion of Spain 1 6 1 
 
 the fair Countess Lieven pleaded in vain, for the sturdy* old 
 soldier remained true to England and to Canning. But the 
 central figure of the Congress, in both social and political 
 aspects, was always Alexander. Tall, stately and the hand- 
 somest of men the Czar's presence and countenance were 
 such as to attract every gaze. Sir Thomas Lawrence praised 
 the nobility of his features, which his expression of dreamy 
 melancholy enhanced. Sometimes he wandered about with 
 Chateaubriand, and as he gazed on the bright sunlight of the 
 city of Juliet, spoke to his companion of the glories of his own 
 great city, where indeed it was always twilight, but where the 
 gorgeous robes of the East and Syrian palms could be seen 
 beneath a polar sky, and where the blue Neva flowed between 
 quays of rose-granite bearing ten thousand ships on its 
 bosom. Truly the Czar and the writer had exchanged parts, 
 for it was Chateaubriand who was spell-bound by an eloquence 
 and an imagination so strangely akin to his own. It was 
 these fatal gifts which, applied to politics, had at one time 
 made Alexander's fame rival that of Napoleon's, but had 'at 
 length doomed all his hopes to failure, and turned generous 
 aspirations into despotic realities. The dreamer, who had 
 forced Louis XVIII to grant a constitution in France, was the 
 tyrant who now desired to lead an army to overthrow one in 
 Spain. The man who had placed peoples before sovereigns 
 had become, after Metternich, the chief organizer of the despotic 
 unions, which announced the divine right of Kings. The 
 results of the Congress but confirmed his sense of gloom and 
 failure. He dreaded the future which he foresaw would now 
 open upon Europe. Indeed the Congress was the last muster 
 and pageant of the forces of the old world, the last union 
 which could be construed by any as the threat of the 
 united governments against the united peoples of Europe. 
 Never again would the smaller nations or the peoples crouch 
 at the feet of a " moral union of despots." Never again would 
 an Italian princeling feel secure on his throne or defer 
 granting a constitution, because he knew that the Holy 
 Alliance would overcome the demands of his people by force 
 of arms. He might calculate on the prospect but could not 
 foretell the result. Canning's attitude at this Congress in 
 reality tolled the passing bell of the " new system for the 
 government of Europe," of the Areopagus which presumed to 
 
 * As Chateaubriand — Congr^s de Vdrone — has it — " on caressait en 
 vain le successeur de Marlborough pour le faire sortir de le politique de 
 scfh pays." 
 
1 62 Life of Canning 
 
 sit in judgment on the world. " No one remembers the 
 speeches made round the table of Prince Metternich : but oh, 
 immortal power of genius, no traveller will ever hear the lark 
 sing in the fields of Verona without recalling Shakspere ! ' 
 Thus wrote Chateaubriand who, like nearly all contemporaries, 
 saw only the immediate results. Because the Holy Alliance 
 was foiled and flouted, almost dissolved, because joint 
 interference was checked, and because the Congress was 
 ineiTectual, contemporaries decided to neglect and forget it. 
 It is precisely for these reasons that posterity will remember 
 it and Canning. 
 
 While the Congress had been proceeding, Canning had 
 felt compelled to demand satisfaction from Spain for a long 
 series of depredations on English shipping. We had con- 
 ditionally postponed the recognition of the independence 
 of her revolted colonies, on the understanding that Spain 
 tacitly suffered our trade with them to continue, until she 
 was in a position to effect new arrangements. The dis- 
 organization in Spain had withdrawn most of her ships 
 from the seas. Innumerable pirates or privateers robbed or 
 molested some English vessels, whilst in defiance of the agree- 
 ment, the royal fleet seized others trading with the colonies, 
 and condemned our ships to rot in Spanish harbours and our 
 sailors to languish in Spanish prisons. On Oct. 28 Canning 
 through A'Court threatened reprisals from the English fleet, 
 unless " instant atonement" was made. " England would not 
 look upon the anarchy in Spain as an offence ; but neither 
 would she allow Spain to plead it as a privilege." Canning 
 felt both the honour and interests of his country demanded 
 this action, but he is said to have considered the days, during 
 which he awaited a reply, the most anxious of all his 
 diplomatic career. It is characteristic that, though he knew 
 the reply would be favourably influenced by the knowledge 
 that England was fighting Spanish battles at Verona, and 
 though he feared that reply might mean war, his high sense 
 of honour did not permit him to disclose the course of 
 negotiation or the attitude of England. Fortunately the 
 Spanish Cortes behaved well, and freely admitted the 
 necessity of reparation. The revelation of England's action 
 at the end of the Congress gained their warmest applause, 
 and they solicited the good offices of Canning. He therefore 
 authorised Wellington to propose England as a mediator in 
 the causes of dispute between Spain and France. A previous 
 suggestion that England should mediate between the Con- 
 
Congress of Verona and Invasion of Spain 163 
 
 gress and Spain had been declined by Wellington, on the 
 ground of objection to ■aS\. joint-intervention. " The real though 
 unavowed cause of French hostility," wrote Canning* with true 
 insight, " is perhaps the passion that is felt in France for some- 
 thing of dclat and national exertion ; a sort of false appetite 
 for Glory which they disguise to others and perhaps to 
 themselves . . to combat this prejudice may be more difficult 
 than to strip it of its pretexts and point to the dangers with 
 which it is accompanied." But mediation which finds one 
 power so insensible to argument, as to compel resort to 
 stripping tactics, is not likely to succeed. On Dec. 16 the 
 British offer was declined. Montmorency, who had sought to 
 give a European colour and support to a French invasion, 
 was expelled. To the Foreign Office succeeded Chateau- 
 briand, who had even at Verona endeavoured to make 
 the Spanish question exclusively French, and who now 
 breathed nothing but war. But the single object of England 
 remained the preservation of peace, and for that Canning 
 continued to labour. He had already succeeded in isolating 
 France, and he now endeavoured to conciliate her. The 
 Duke of Wellington, in his private capacity, had offered to try 
 the effect of an appeal to Spain. Lord Fitzroy Somerset 
 proceeded to Madrid with a memorandum, not from His 
 Majesty's Plenipotentiary the Duke of Wellington, but from 
 the " Duque de Ciudad Rodrigo," who advised the influential 
 personages of Spain as their fellow hidalgo and countryman. 
 But the united bundle of Allied despatches had been received 
 at Madrid, and the proud spirit of the nation had been 
 insulted. Moreover the Cortes rashly counted, despite 
 emphatic disclaimers, on strong military support from the 
 English nation in case of war. This last effort was rejected, 
 and there remained only the power of employing good offices 
 and giving friendly advice to both nations. 
 
 The real causes of the French agitation for war were two, 
 the desire of the aristocrats to flesh their swords under the 
 command of a Bourbon prince, to make the lilies as glorious 
 as the tricolor, and the monarchy as stable as the empire ; 
 and the desire of the King and Villele to unite Ferdinand 
 to Louis XVIII in a new Facte Famille, by destroying the 
 constitution both hated. Though the revolts and distur- 
 bances had largely subsided, the Cordon Sanitaire — now 
 ominously named the Army of Observation — still remained. 
 
 * To Wellington Dec. 8th, 1822. Continent F.O. 46. 
 
164 Life of Canning 
 
 Canning made every effort to conciliate anxi appease the 
 French Hotspurs, both in public and private. As an indi- 
 vidual he wrote to the Comte d'Artois to enlist his influence 
 against the terrible calamity of war. He wrote private 
 letters to his old friend and correspondent Chateaubriand — 
 models of style and eloquence — in which he made a personal 
 as well as a political appeal. The war was stripped of its 
 pretexts as effectually as in the more public despatches, but 
 the irritation of the statesman was calmed by appeals to the 
 vanity of the writer. Nowhere are the French pleas and 
 justifications so skilfully undraped. " I understand a war of 
 conquest for the change or preservation of a dynasty. . . . 
 but a war for the change of a political constitution, for the 
 two chambers, for the extension of the royal prerogative, I 
 really do not understand . . . You would not surely wish 
 to propagate the Charta (of France) as Mahomet the Alkoran, 
 or as in 1789 France propagated the Rights of Man." It is in 
 these letters that Canning coins the phrase* "Peace with honour" 
 which he desired to give to France, and which Disraeli, surely 
 not unconscious of its origin, declared he gave to England. 
 Finally he ends with the solemn words " le clef de I'avenir est 
 encore entre vos mains, ouvrez-le ; et qui pourra repondre de 
 I'etendue de la devastation ? " Chateaubriand might well be 
 intoxicated by the exquisite flattery, but the greatest French 
 writer of his age was not alj a brilliant impostor. His 
 imaginative power gave him great ideas, even though he 
 lacked the gifts of practical statesmanship. He felt his 
 own fame and that of his country would be enhanced by 
 the invasion of Spain. The glory of the minister was to 
 enhance that of the writer, and the measures of the one 
 were to realize the dreams of the other. Hence his 
 sentiments and ambitions were bound up in a war, which 
 would restore to a King an unshaken throne, and to the 
 Church an unsullied altar. 
 
 Chateaubriand's influence was clearly seen in the French 
 King's Speech to his Parliament. " Let Ferdinand be free to 
 give to his people the institutions which they cannot hold 
 except from him. From that moment hostilities shall cease." 
 Legitimacy had again reared its crest. No sooner did the 
 report reach England than universal indignation was excited 
 at doctrines, which Canning afterwards publicly stigmatised 
 as " abhorrent and monstrous." Not a day was lost before he 
 
 * The series in Congrfes de V^rone I. p. 445 et seq. 
 
Congress of Verona and Invasion of Spain 165 
 
 protested. " The King's speech," * wrote he to Sir Charles 
 Stuart, " is construed as implying that the free institutions of 
 the Spanish people can only be legitimately held from the 
 spontaneous gift of the sovereign, first restored to absolute 
 power, and then divesting himself of such portion of that 
 power as he shall think proper. The Spanish nation could 
 not be expected to subscribe to this proposition, nor could 
 any British statesman uphold or defend it ... it strikes at 
 the roots of the British constitution." (Chateaubriand hastily 
 and somewhat shabbily explained away the clear and obvious 
 meaning of this speech). " The British government could not 
 countenance a pretension on the part of France to make her 
 example a rule for other nations : and still less could it admit 
 a peculiar right in France to force that example specifically 
 upon Spain, in virtue of the consanguinity of the two reigning 
 dynasties" Here Canning touches on one of the real, though 
 unavowed, objects of the war — to recover French influence 
 and re-establish the Bourbon connection at Madrid. As War 
 seemed only a question of days Canning wrote again and 
 again to Stuart.f The despatch of February i8th displays 
 the new spirit he had introduced into the cabinets of Europe. 
 " Is it possible that the French government do not feel that 
 the times are too big for such experiments ? that tJw days of 
 mere court negotiations are gone by and are not yet returned ? 
 that the principles which are at war in the world are principles, 
 affecting not merely the external interests, but the internal 
 safety of States ? principles which cannot be brought into con- 
 fleet in any quarter of Europe without endangering the safety 
 of the whole ? Above all do they not feel that France, with 
 her newly restored dynasty and yet unsettled institutions, 
 hazards more for her own safety, and in her safety more for 
 that of the world than any minister ought upon his responsi- 
 bility — political or moral — to venture without inevitable 
 necessity ? " 
 
 Canning was the more enraged at this evident war for ambi- 
 tion and aggrandizement, because he had forsaken his favourite 
 doctrine of non-intervention, in the effort to avoid collision 
 between France and Spain. He considered all interference in 
 the internal affairs of States unjustifiable, but if it was a choice 
 between that and war he would yield a point. As Spaniards 
 
 * France F.O. 284. Feb. 3, 1823. The declaration of neutrality in case 
 of war was withdrawn from the king's speech to the English parliament. 
 
 I To Sir Charles Stuart— France F.O. 284. 
 
1 66 Life of Canning 
 
 of all parties agreed some modifications of the Constitution of 
 i8i2tobe indispensably necessary, he suggested alterations 
 in deference to the wishes of France as an alternative prefer- 
 able to war. At the same time he utterly disclaimed any 
 attempt at patronage or interference on the part of England. 
 He did his best to soothe the pride of the Spanish Cortes who 
 trusted rashly to English support, but who believed and rightly 
 that the Royal rebellion in North Spain owed much to French 
 instigation and French gold. This last effort failed, and the 
 French — "driven on by the Ultrageous party — their pokers and 
 goaders " — at length declared open war by crossing the frontier 
 on the 6th of April, 1823. The spirit of St. Louis hovered 
 over the French army, said Chateaubriand, the Pope had 
 blessed their arms, the gonfalon of the Church was their 
 banner. But the veterans of the Republic must have looked 
 with contempt on the young nobles in their gorgeous uniforms 
 and on their untried leader, the Due d'Angouleme. They 
 remembered with idle regret the days when St. Just in drab 
 civilian garb cheered his ragged soldiers to victory at Weissen- 
 burg, and when the "little corporal," in his plain grey coat 
 with the two-sous cockade in his hat, led them to the triumphs 
 of Lodi and Austerlitz. Were these men likely to conquer 
 Spain when Napoleon had failed ? To the tricolor had now 
 succeeded the lilies, to the Marseillaise the chants and hymns 
 of priests. But had they known it the crucifix was to avail more 
 than the sword. The Spanish peasants welcomed this priestly 
 army which was to deliver them from the anti-clerical Cortes, 
 and restore to them the rule of the Church. The invasion was 
 but a military parade. The Cortes, which had uttered the 
 most insolent threats and boasts, could organize no effectual 
 resistance. They retired to Cadiz, dragging the King with 
 them into captivity. Sir Robert Wilson, who had again 
 drawn his adventurous sword for the cause of liberty, 
 came with Lord Nugent to organize risings which should raise 
 the siege of Cadiz. But Mina, the only capable general among 
 the Spaniards, could not drill or discipline his forces, and the 
 army, which had done so much to cause, did little to defend 
 the revolution. Angouleme refused to treat until Ferdinand 
 was released from captivity. The fort of the Trocadero was 
 stormed and the city of Cadiz bombarded. The Exaltados now 
 decided to throw themselves on the mercy of the King, whom 
 they had previously deposed, declared insane and unfit to rule. 
 On September 30th he signed with apparent goodwill a 
 general amnesty, and was conveyed to the French camp the 
 
Congress of Verona and Invasion of Spain 167 
 
 next day on the express understanding that the Cortes sur- 
 rendered to him and not to Angouleme. He at once began a 
 new course of bigotry and reaction, repealed the amnesty and 
 invalidated every act of the Cortes since 1820. He made his 
 confessor secretary of state, and announced his intention of 
 " offering to God holocausts of piety." Riego and other Liberals 
 were hung or shot, and thousands of men and women impri- 
 soned. The excesses of the Neapolitan reaction were sur- 
 passed both in kind and degree. So savage were the reprisals 
 that not only did Angouleme use all his influence to check 
 them, but the Ambassadors of the three Allies even made 
 vigorous remonstrances against this bloody re-establishment 
 of absolutism. 
 
 Canning had been unwilling to behold this shameless French 
 act of aggression, or to see the Facte Famille renewed, and for 
 a time he seriously meditated war. That policy of bragga- 
 dacio and swashbuckling, so common at many periods of Euro- 
 pean history besides our own, was never that of Canning. " A 
 notion is entertained by some," wrote he to* A'Court, " that the 
 mere menace of war from England would make France 
 abandon her purpose. But a menace, which is not intended to 
 be executed, is an engine which Great Britain should never con- 
 descend to employ ! " Canning never threatened idly or in 
 vain, and he made it clear that, if Portugal was attacked by 
 France, treaty obligations bound us to defend her. Also a con- 
 tinued or permanent occupation of Spanish soil by the French 
 forces would produce war. But war, in defence of the doctrine 
 of non-intervention, would have brought all the Holy Alliance 
 into the field against us, and England had not yet recovered 
 from the effects of the Napoleonic struggle. Wellington pointed 
 out the military dangers, and Canning himself saw that the 
 result might be to light a flame which would overspread 
 Europe.t " I do not deny that I had an itch for war with 
 France," wrote Canning to Frere, " and that a little provocation 
 — but I look back on the decision with entire and perfect 
 self congratulation." England remained at peace, jealous and 
 vigilant to avenge any attack on her interests and her honour, 
 but unwilling to defend the country of Cervantes in deference 
 to the principles of Don Quixote. 
 
 * February 9, 1823— Spain F.O. 268. 
 
 t resting, Frere— p. 257 ; also Well. Desp. N.S.V. 34-50 et passim. 
 Stapleton, Pol. Life, I. 322-3. 
 
1 68 Life of Canning 
 
 But Canning was firmly resolved that, if we did not engage 
 in war, we would indulge no petty resentments by petty viola- 
 tions of international law, or secret encouragements to Spain. 
 The neutrality he decided to maintain should be entire and 
 absolute, even though he anticipated that Spain could offer 
 no effectual resistance. After the overthrow of the Cortes 
 and re-establishment of Absolutism, Canning held England 
 aloof from the odious intrigues and cruelties of the Spanish 
 Court, by way of marking disapproval.* " The time may come 
 when His Catholic Majesty himself, grown weary of the agita- 
 tions and the animosities, with which he is surrounded, and of 
 the perpetual transfer of the offices of state from one incom- 
 petent minister to another, may select some individual worthy of 
 his confidence and capable of giving stability to his counsels. 
 With an administration so formed it will be the duty of the 
 British Minister to cultivate the most intimate and confidential 
 relations, and to employ the influence of his Government for 
 the only purposes to which it can be properly applied, the 
 recommendation of a moderate and healing policy, and of 
 such measures as may conduce to the tranquillity and happi- 
 ness of Spain. But while the present uncertainty and fluctu- 
 ations of counsel prevail, you cannot too studiously avoid the 
 appearance of advising or controlling, or of being the setter 
 up or puller down of successive ministers." 
 
 One of the most popular theories advanced by the extremer 
 Whigs was that the English ought to guarantee a constitution 
 to Spain. Nothing enraged them so much as the fact that 
 A'Court had left the King, when in manifest duress at Cadiz 
 and proceeded to Gibraltar, only rejoining Him when he was 
 set at liberty. But as A'Court was accredited to Ferdinand, 
 and not to a provisional Government, to him alone could he 
 pay his respects. On the larger question of guarantee 
 Canning wrote to t A'Court in no uncertain sense. " Objec- 
 tionable as a territorial guaranty is shown to be, the objections 
 to a guaranty of internal institutions are infinitely stronger. 
 It is difficult to say whether these objections apply with 
 greater force to the party giving or to that which receives 
 such a guaranty. The very principle, on which the British 
 Government so earnestly deprecated the war against Spain, 
 was that of the right of any Nation to change or modify its 
 internal institutions. Is that war to end in His Majesty's 
 
 *Dec. 29, 1823, to A'Court, Spain F.O. 298. 
 
 i Spain F.O, Sept. i8th, 1823. Stapleton Pol. Life I. 428 et seq. 
 
Congress of Verona and Invasion of Spam 169 
 
 consenting to assume to himself the province of defending 
 against all challengers, from within as well as from without, 
 the institutions whatever they may be, which the war may 
 leave standing in Spain ? Is His Majesty to guarantee the 
 constitution of 181 2, indifference to which to say the least, 
 if not aversion, is the single point upon which anything like 
 an agreement of opinion has been found to exist in Spain ? 
 Or is he to guarantee the ancient despotism, the restoration of 
 which with all its accompaniments appears to be the object 
 of by far the largest party in the country ? Or is it to be on 
 behalf of some new system, to be struck out at a heat at the 
 winding up of affairs at Cadiz, that the faith of Great Britain 
 is to be pledged — and that her blood and treasure are to be 
 forthcoming ? Or is it only to be the undoubted right of the 
 Spanish nation to reform its own Government that His 
 Majesty's guaranty has to be added ? If such a guaranty 
 were anything more than the mere affirmation of an abstract 
 principle against whom would it have practically to operate ? 
 Clearly against the Spaniards themselves and in the endless 
 struggle, which may be expected from the distracted state of 
 the country, against every party by turns ? Could anything 
 be more unbecoming than the assumption of such a right by 
 a foreign power ? Could anything be more intolerable to the 
 country in respect to which it was assumed ? " He goes on to 
 say that England would not acknowledge such a right in any 
 other Power. "The exercise of such a right must necessarily lead 
 to our intermeddling with the affairs of the guaranteed State, 
 such as to place it in fact at the mercy of the Power who gives 
 the guarantee. Russia in former times guaranteed the con- 
 stitution of Poland, the result is known and it was inevitable." 
 Canning's instance of Russia as the guarantor of constitu- 
 tions, and the result and effect is admirable. Moreover he 
 saw that Spain, distracted by violent passions and parties, 
 was as yet unfit for constitutional government. During the 
 next forty years the only men, who gave any peace to the 
 country or acquired any ascendancy, were men like Narvaez 
 or O'Donnell, who never hesitated to shoot their political 
 opponents in preference to arguing with them. Again Spain 
 was neither united nor was she a nation. She was a collection 
 of jealous and self-centred provincials, Castilians, Andalusians, 
 Asturians, Catalonians, Basques. The Spaniards never united 
 amongst themselves except against the meddling of a foreign 
 power as Napoleon discovered to his ruin. That they did not 
 always unite even then Angouleme proved. The lot of the 
 
 II 
 
170 Life of Canning 
 
 hapless guaranteeing Power would have been exacly as 
 Canning forecast. A Castilian would rather have been the 
 subject of a Catalan, an Exaltado would sooner have been 
 absolved by a priest, than any or either would have submitted 
 to the pedantic intervention of foreigners, or listened to 
 abstract dissertations on constitutional Liberty from the 
 Ministers of England. Just as no one can work an electric 
 battery unless fresh stores of accumulated energy are con- 
 tinually provided, so the vital force of a constitution is drawn 
 from the collective strength and intelligence of a nation. 
 Canning's contemporaries thought a nation possessing a good 
 constitution was thereby regenerated, not seeing that a 
 constitution must be adapted to the needs and the character 
 of a nation, and that a good constitution may accompany but 
 cannot of itself create the national greatness or prosperity. 
 Spain endowed with our constitution at this time would have 
 been like David in Saul's coat-of-mail, hampered and fettered 
 and weighed down by a cumbrous protective armour not its own. 
 Canning defended himself with inimitable skill from the 
 Liberal attack in Parliament. His speech of April 28, 1823, 
 was a marvel of clearness, and one of his finest if not one of his 
 most eloquent efforts. It was the more remarkable because 
 Brougham's reply was to the last degree weak and ineffective. 
 To that extra-parliamentary audience — the public at large — 
 he defended himself in a * speech at Plymouth containing one 
 of the most beautiful passages in the whole range of English 
 oratory. " Let it not be said that we cultivate peace either 
 because we fear, or because we are unprepared for war. . . . 
 The resources created by peace are means of war. In 
 cherishing these resources we but accumulate those means. 
 Our present repose is no more a proof of inability to act, than 
 the state of inertness and inactivity in which I have seen 
 these mighty masses that float in the water above your town, is 
 a proof they are devoid of strength and not fitted out for action. 
 You well know how one of those stupendous masses, now 
 reposing on their shadows in perfect stillness — how soon 
 upon any call of patriotism or of necessity, it would assume 
 the likeness of an animated thing, instinct with life — how 
 soon it would rufifle, as it were, its swelling plumage — how 
 quickly it would put forth its beauty and bravery, collect its 
 scattered elements and awaken its dormant thunder. Such 
 as is one of these mighty machines when springing from 
 
 * October, 1823 
 
Congress of Verona and Invasion of Spain 171 
 
 inaction into a display of its might — such is England herself, 
 while apparently passive and motionless, she silently con- 
 centrates the power to be put forth on an adequate occasion. 
 But God forbid that that occasion should arise." This was 
 no idle boasting, that Canning was prepared to run the risk 
 of war on questions of deep and vital import he quickly 
 showed. Meanwhile this bold declaration struck terror into 
 the hearts of the Holy Alliance. They had often discussed 
 and shuddered over the mischievous utterances of the 
 Opposition leaders, like Tierney and Brougham. What then 
 must have been their feelings to hear these words from a 
 responsible minister of England ? 
 
 If contemporaries had been asked to point out Canning's 
 failures as a foreign minister, they would almost certainly have 
 selected his action in 1823. They would have criticized his 
 failure to prevent war, and would probably have declared that 
 he should either have fought or given a constitutional 
 guarantee. His attempts to prevent war had been strenuous, 
 but largely ineffectual because France feared and distrusted 
 England. Castlereagh's somewhat dubious and apparently 
 insincere attitude since 1820 had left behind it a legacy of 
 hatred and suspicion. Canning declared on visiting Paris in 
 1826 that had the French Cabinet understood and believed 
 England in 1823, as they did three years afterwards, there 
 would have been no war. This is * possible but not altogether 
 certain, as France was influenced by motives of ambition and 
 interest as well as distrust. As to whether Canning should 
 have resisted France with arms or given a guarantee time 
 has passed its judgment. The appeal to the Court of 
 Posterity is the hardest test to which any statesman or policy 
 can be submitted. Its verdict in both these cases is that the 
 risks were too great, the gains to France and to liberty too 
 small and problematical to admit of our interference. More- 
 over, in accordance with his system, Canning had limited and 
 narrowed the sphere of action. His firmness averted the 
 aggression of Portugal, and at the same time protected her 
 from attack. He maintained absolute neutrality, showed a 
 friendly feeling to Spain, and restrained the further aggression 
 of France. The means by which he destroyed all the gain in 
 renown and in material advantage, which France acquired by 
 her occupation of Spain, are to be sought in another chapter 
 and another continent. 
 
 * This view was strongly held by Sir Robert Wilson — a very high 
 authority. Ad. MSS. 30,132 ff. 66-7,71. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 CANNING AND THE NEW WORLD 
 
 " No wise man has a policy," said the Viceroy, " a policy is 
 the blackmail levied by the Fool on the Unforeseen." There 
 are in fact two sorts of policy. The first is propounded by 
 theorists or emotional agitators and consists of a pedantic 
 insistence upon abstract principles, which men like the 
 Viceroy find it impossible to adjust to local conditions. The 
 second is propounded only by great statesmen, who lay down 
 principles sufficiently wide to provide for the unforeseen, and 
 yet sufficiently based on history and on facts to produce — in 
 the main — anticipated results. In no department of state- 
 affairs is it so needful that there should be a system as in 
 foreign policy. " We must deal with the affairs of men," said 
 Canning on Feb. 24th, i8ai6, "on abstract principles, modified 
 of. course according to time and circumstances. We must 
 soar to the heights from which alone extended views of 
 human nature can be taken." Canning's system of policy was 
 founded on an observation of the conditions before him, it 
 embraced both the Old and New World, providing for the 
 most sudden and unexpected occurrences, and yet producing 
 much that he had foreseen and desired. This policy has 
 already been shown on a small scale in the negotiations at 
 Verona and with Spain, where the microscope can discern 
 some of the future tendencies and developments. The first 
 and primary object was the peace of the world, and the 
 formula to produce this result was non-intervention, or " every 
 nation for itself and God for us all ! " From this doctrine 
 flowed all Canning's policy, for England was to champion 
 this principle. This enabled her to hold the balance between 
 absolutism and liberty, as she had shown in Spain by an 
 absolute neutrality, which she endeavoured to force on other 
 nations beside herself. Thus by promoting peace, goodwill 
 
Canning and the New World 173 
 
 and national independence she won over popular governments, 
 she ranged the peoples on her side against their absolutist 
 governments, she enlisted the smaller nations struggling for 
 their rights in Europe and the nations struggling to birth in 
 America, against the Holy Alliance. Canning meant to make 
 England the arbiter of the world, but it was by peaceful means 
 and for no greedy and selfish objects of aggrandizement. He 
 was resolved to secure commercial rights for England, so that 
 she should not be penalised, but he never claimed an exclusive 
 or exce_ptional treatment. He was resolved that the sword of 
 England should leap from its scabbard to avenge any serious 
 outrage upon the principles he had laid down. But in spite 
 of many opportunities and obvious temptations he was never 
 seduced from this policy by mere sordid desire for acquisition 
 of territory or seizure of special political advantages. It was 
 in this large and grand sense that " England " was to be sub- 
 stituted for the " Alliance." She was to communicate by her 
 example and her policy something of prosperity and stability 
 to surrounding nations, England herself was to legislate for 
 the world, but she demanded only for this service its respect 
 and admiration. She did not, like other legislators, seek 
 material rewards from each party whom she served. 
 
 The vast and splendid empire, which the swords of Cortez 
 and Pizarro had given to Spain, remained for three hundred 
 years cut off from all intercourse with any other nation. The 
 Conquistadors had equalled the heroes of romance in bravery 
 and in exploits, but they were unskilled in the most difificult 
 of all arts, that of government. The natives were treated 
 with a cruelty which even rhetoric cannot exaggerate, the 
 remains of ancient and often noble civilisations were crushed 
 out. The Church and the Inquisition were imposed on tHe 
 New World, as well as an economic and commercial policy 
 of the narrowest and most ruinous type. The " Council of 
 the Indies " at Madrid tried indeed to protect the natives, 
 but remained comparatively indifferent to the needs or the 
 sufferings of its colonies, it desired only gold and thought 
 bullion synonymous with wealth. Adventurers like Drake 
 and Raleigh sacked a town or captured a plate fleet and 
 destroyed Spanish naval supremacy. But the Spanish colonies 
 remained, with immense but undeveloped resources and in- 
 finite possibilities, enclosed as within a convent wall. The 
 dazzling genius of Chatham, first among English statesmen 
 conceived the idea of bursting these barriers and giving half 
 a continent to the British Crown. A palace intrigue hurled 
 
174 Life of Canning 
 
 the great minister from office, and thus cut short a design 
 which might have written a new volume in the History of the 
 World. The younger Pitt had endeavoured to strip Spain 
 of her colonies, in revenge for her steadfast alliance with 
 France from 1796- 1803. But when Bonaparte invaded Spain 
 Canning had indignantly rejected a proposal that England 
 should compensate herself for her losses, by occupying the 
 colonies of Spain who was now her ally. The Colonies 
 remained pathetically loyal, refused to acknowledge Joseph 
 Bonaparte, and erected local Juntas — provisional governments, 
 which endeavoured to be submissive to the Central Junta in 
 Spain. But they had tasted the sweets of independence, and 
 their harsh and oppressive treatment by the mother country 
 at length alienated and dissolved a loyalty, which had always 
 been a paradox and an enigma to other nations. By 18 13' 
 Venezuela, Mexico, New Granada, and Buenos Ayres had 
 declared for independence. The incredible cruelties, with 
 which the Spaniards endeavoured to suppress the revolts, 
 produced terrible reprisals and promoted independence. The 
 great leader of the insurgents was that strange character — 
 half hero half charlatan — the man acclaimed as a second 
 and greater Washington, Bolivar the " Liberator." Peru, 
 Columbia, Venezuela and Bolivia all owe to him their freedom 
 from Spain. No man was better qualified to lead or to unite 
 the nondescript armies he commanded. San Martin was a 
 more disinterested statesman, Paez possibly had a sterner 
 courage, Sucre was perhaps a better general. But no man 
 united such daring to such resolution, so clear a conception of 
 the military and political situation to such a fiery and passion- 
 ate eloquence. Often defeated he was always greatest in 
 retreat and most victorious after the most signal disasters. 
 His passage of the Andes in 1824 with his motley forces 
 is a feat worthy of comparison with Napoleon and Hannibal's 
 feat in crossing the Alps. But turning from his military 
 triumphs it must be admitted that his civil administration was 
 grossly corrupt, his conduct unstable and treacherous, often 
 the basest and most selfish opportunism. His ideal of 
 government appeared to be a system of recurring coup d'etats, 
 which rendered him permanent Dictator of the States he 
 professed to liberate. It may be urged in his justification 
 that as the Spaniards had known nothing of the art of 
 government they could not have imparted it to the colonists, 
 that the rule of the sword was preferable to the rule of the 
 knife, and the order of the camp preferable to the anarchy of 
 
Canning and the New World 175 
 
 the market place. And though immeasurably ambitious and 
 tyrannical, Bolivar was not without great ideas of policy to 
 which he clung with strenuous persistence. 
 
 English sympathy had gone out to South America in 
 public subscriptions and in voluntary aid. Cochrane, who as 
 a sailor was hardly inferior even to Nelson, showed his; 
 matchless skill and daring in the Chilian Navy. Many 
 English soldiers served as volunteers, and the " English 
 Legion " was the veritable " Old Guard " of Bolivar's 
 motley forces. But the merchants of England were 
 in reality more effectual as Liberators than the Legionaries, 
 the subscribers, or even than Bolivar himself The 
 old exclusive restrictions of colonial commerce to Spain 
 were completely broken down, and England poured its goods 
 upon South America and infinitely developed her resources. 
 A tacit compact was arranged between Spain and England 
 that the one should enforce no commercial restrictions while 
 the other continued to refuse political recognition. It was 
 further held that, if Spain did succeed in reasserting her 
 authority, she should give full notice before resuming an 
 exclusive trade policy. The question of armed intervention 
 from Europe had been strongly urged by Alexander, and 
 mildly deprecated by Castlereagh at Aix-la-Chapelle. The 
 latter had conciliated Spain by a stringent foreign enlistment 
 Act. England had constantly offered her mediation and 
 good offices between Spain and her colonies, and both were 
 as constantly refused. During the last years of Castlereagh 
 Russian and French intrigues continued in South America, 
 and English trade increased in volume. Castlereagh's last 
 opinions were contained in the instructions for Verona. 
 He declared that no recognition could be contemplated in 
 territories within which the contest still continued, but stated 
 that if Spain did not re-establish her authority other States 
 would soon acknowledge them. " The whole," he concluded, 
 " may be regarded as a question of time rather than principle." 
 
 Such was the condition when Canning received the seals. 
 On the question of recognition, he wrote to* Wellington, 
 Sept. 27, 1822, that he must under no circumstances, pledge 
 his Government against recognition, and instructed him to 
 hint that England might be compelled to recognize the 
 colonies before Parliament met. The prompt measures by 
 which he enforced from Spain redress for her interference 
 
 * F.O. Continent, 46, 
 
176 Life of Canning 
 
 with English ships trading with the colonies however delayed 
 the need for recognition. On Nov. 8, he wrote to the Duke, 
 " in the present state of the world, of the peninsula, of the 
 country the A merican questions are out of all proportion more 
 important than the European, and if we do not seize and turn 
 them to our advantage in time we shall rue the loss of an 
 opportunity never never to be recovered!' The designs of France 
 on the New World proved the truth of these words. 
 By April, 1823, France was invading Spain and apparently 
 desirous of reviving the Facte Famille. Chateaubriand was 
 both able and ambitious, and bent upon aggrandisement* 
 He and Villele had at first thought of a French expedition to 
 subdue the revolted colonies, instead of an invasion of old 
 Spain. Villele had declared France would not submit to 
 extension of British advantages or territory in South America. 
 Canning, ever jealous of his country's honour, had sent a 
 haughty reply, whilst he wrote privately to Wellington : " I 
 confess I long to tell Villele (if it were worth while and if this 
 were the moment) that we will trade with the late Spanish 
 American Colonies, whether France likes it or not, that we 
 will not respect the Spanish guarda-costas, which attempt to 
 interdict that trade to us, and that if France sends a large 
 fleet to help the guarda-costas, we will send a larger to watch 
 at least their operations," The danger was indeed a very 
 real one and justified these vigorous words.'' Chateaubriand 
 secretly designed to reconquer the colonies and place them 
 under a Bourbon prince or princes, and thus exalt the prestige 
 of France. Alexander, the great advocate of Legitimacy, who 
 had encouraged France in her designs on Spain, had openly 
 avowed his wish to use armed intervention against her re- 
 volted colonies. He had also recently published an Ukase 
 prohibiting foreign vessels from trading within one hundred 
 Italian miles of the North-west coast of America, from Behring's 
 Strait to the sist latitude. He coolly ignored the fact that 
 there were actual trade settlements under the English flag 
 within his political Tom Tiddler's ground. Canning at once 
 protested and eventually forced a withdrawal of these pre- 
 tensions. But the Ukase is valuable evidence of Alexander's 
 designs. It was another indication to Canning that he might 
 have to fear war both with France and Russia, if he asserted 
 the principle of non-intervention in the New World. Early 
 in 1823 Canning demanded and obtained from France a dis- 
 
 * Well. Desp. I. 637-650. Stapleton^ Pol. Life I. 221 , 
 
Canning and the New World 177 
 
 claimer of any views of ambition or aggrandizement. But 
 this he knew was a mere diplomatic evasion.* On March 
 31st he wrote to Sir Charles Stuart: "With respect to the 
 (revolted) Colonies time and the course of events appear to 
 have already substantially decided their separation from the 
 motheir country, although their formal recognition as inde- 
 pendent States by His Majesty may be hastened or retarded 
 by various external circumstances, as well as by the more or 
 less satisfactory progress in each State towards a regular and 
 settled form of government." He ended by disclaiming in 
 the most solemn manner any intention on the part of England 
 to appropriate the smallest portion of the late Spanish pos- 
 sessions in America. Unfriendly critics have denounced 
 Canning as opportunistic, and Stapleton, who hardly grasped 
 the wider aspects of his policy, somewhat favours this view. 
 But his policy was only the opportunism of defence. The 
 aggressive interference of any Power he would endeavour to 
 prevent by every means at his command. If foiled he might 
 endeavour to balance it by compensating advantages to, 
 England, but under no circumstances should English policy 
 begin with aggression or end with annexation. This is surely 
 opportunism in a very unusual and a very noble sense. 
 Canning hesitated long about going to war with France for 
 violating the principle of non-intervention, but he immediately 
 rejected with scorn thef bribe of Montevideo offered by Spain 
 as the price of our alliance, and disdained equally some 
 French intrigues which hinted at joint partition of the 
 Spanish colonies. If it is opportunism to seek first the peace 
 of the world, to make your country the arbiter of differences 
 and the reconciler of nations, to disclaim territorial aggrandise- 
 ment, to uphold the inalienable rights of nations and to 
 strengthen and elevate the national independence of individual 
 States, Canning was an opportunist. But such a policy is far 
 removed from the selfish and sordid nationalism, the exclusive 
 and unjust desires to secure individual advantages at the 
 expense of other nations and of justice, which pass as the 
 current definitions or examples of opportunism. 
 
 The first object of Canning was to secure the safety of 
 British trade with the colonies. He demanded no exclusive 
 or preferential treatment, but insisted upon security being 
 given to Englishmen in their commercial pursuits. Spain 
 
 * France, F.O. 284. 
 
 t Spain, F.O 268. Feb. 9th, 1823, to A'Court. 
 
178 Life of Canning 
 
 desired to re-establish the Council of the Indies in all its 
 tyranny and power. Villele and Chateaubriand were clearly 
 occupying old Spain as a means by which to menace Eng- 
 land and enforce concessions to French rule or influence in 
 the New World. Alexander wished to enforce the principles 
 of Legitimacy upon a new continent by the use of the 
 military forces of the Holy Alliance. To Villele and 
 Alexander Canning was determined to offer armed resistance. 
 He looked around him for allies and saw only the United 
 States. The policy of England towards the United States 
 had been much changed by the miserable war of 1 812-4, 
 which Canning, had he been in office, might have avoided 
 altogether by the " honourable conciliation " he had advocated. 
 Castlereagh had shown himself eager to avoid causes of 
 quarrel, but his American policy resembled his European ; 
 * " wavering and unsteady " " willing to wound and yet afraid 
 to strike," such was the estimate of Adams the American 
 foreign Secretary. Castlereagh himself admitted that he was 
 suspected by the Holy Alliance of endeavouring to excite 
 Spanish Liberalism, and by the United States of endeavouring 
 to crush it. Canning had already done something to change 
 all this, had shown a conciliatory disposition and produced 
 something like harmony between the two governments. 
 Until now the United States had, in deference to the warnings 
 of Washington, absolutely isolated and separated themselves 
 from European affairs. They had, however, already acquired 
 Louisiana from France and Florida from Spain. They had 
 shown sympathy with the South American patriots, and in 
 1822 had recognised Colombia, Buenos Ayres, Mexico, Chili 
 and Peru as sovereign independent States. They had further 
 engaged in designs of their own upon Cuba, which had been 
 a source of great anxiety to t Canning and which he was 
 resolved to prevent. At present both English-speaking 
 governments were threatened by a common danger, the 
 attack of Legitimacy upon the New World. 
 
 * Reddaway — Monroe Doctrine — p. 14. Also Spain, F.O. 233. 
 Castlereagh to Sir H. Wellesley 25 Ap. 1820. There is an extraordinary 
 incident connected with St. Domingo. In negotiating with France on 
 this subject Canning found England was bound not to interfere by a 
 secret article in a treaty signed by Castlereagh. Yet of this article 
 Wellington, Castlereagh's bosom friend and colleague, was ignorant ! 
 Stapleton Correspec. I 278 et seq. Incidentally all this confirms and 
 strengthens, by analogy, our view of Castlereagh's European policy. 
 
 t Reddaway p. 55— Well. Desp. N.S. I. 117, etc. etc. 
 
Canning and the New World 179 
 
 A full political recognition of the Spanish Colonies Canning 
 was at present unable to offer, because of opposition in the 
 Cabinet, because it would offend Spain and perhaps violate 
 our neutrality, and because their stability was as yet uncertain. 
 Lastly, it would offend all the Allies without greatly benefit- 
 ing Great Britain. But on commercial recognition he was 
 prepared to insist, and had been urged thereto by countless 
 petitions from English manufacturers, shipowners, and 
 Chambers of Commerce. At the end of 1 822 he had announced 
 his intentions and obtained the opinion of the Board of Trade,| 
 The Treasury, and the Crown Lawyers. The French pro- 
 gress in Spain now urged him to act. On the i6th Aug. 1823, 
 he opened the subject to Rush, the United States ambassador 
 in London, and suggested a joint adjustment of policy 
 on South American affairs. On the 20th he sent the 
 following note, which may fairly be described as one of the 
 most important documents of the era. (i) The English 
 Government conceived the recovery of the Colonies by Spain 
 to be hopeless. (2) It viewed their recognition as one of time 
 and circumstance. (3) It was not disposed to impede an 
 arrangement between them and. the Mother country by 
 amicable negotiations. (4) It aimed not at the possession of 
 any portion of them for Great Britain. (5) It could not see 
 any part of them transferred to any other Power without 
 indifference. If these were the opinions of the United States, 
 " why should they not be mutually confided to each other and 
 declared in the face of the world ? This would be at once the 
 most effectual and the least offensive mode of intimating the 
 joint disapprobation of Great Britain and the United States 
 of any projects which might be cherished by any European 
 Power, of a forcible enterprise for reducing the Colonies to 
 subjugation on the behalf, or in the name of Spain; or of 
 the acquisition of any part of them to itself by cession or by 
 conquest." Canning greatly impressed Rush with his earnest- 
 ness, but the American was hampered by his lack of specific 
 instructions, and a desire not to be drawn into European 
 politics. After many interviews, as time pressed, Canning 
 was obliged to abandon the hope of a joint public declaration. 
 But he had secured a promise at any rate of moral and perhaps 
 of material support which was of the greatest value to him. His 
 statepaper and subsequent conversations had laid down for the( 
 first time the doctrine of non-intervention, as applied to the 
 New World, had enlightened the minds of American statesmen, 
 and prepared the way for the famous " Monroe doctrine." 
 
i8o Life of Canning 
 
 Thus strengthened Canning determined to deal boldly and 
 decisively with the designs of France — and to inform her 
 plainly that any attack on Spanish America would at once 
 produce war with Great Britain. He was at length resolved 
 to draw the sword for the doctrine of non-intervention against 
 France or Russia or both combined. On Oct. 9th, 1823, and 
 previous days he held several conferences with the French 
 ambassador Polignac — a somewhat unscrupulous negotiator — 
 ' quo non jesuitior alter ' as Canning wrote him down. The 
 memorandum of the conferences was afterwards published 
 and aroused extraordinary interest and enthusiasm. " Britain," 
 said the President of Mexico, " has interposed her trident to 
 save the New World from the Holy Alliance." * So indeed 
 it was, Polignac faced with the dreadful alternative of war, 
 disclaimed any desire on the part of France to appropriate 
 any part of the Spanish colonies, or to act against them by 
 force of arms. He admitted a return to the old relations of 
 the colonies to Spain to be utterly hopeless, but strongly 
 urged England to take part in a joint conference on the sub- 
 ject. Canning urged the considerations already given in his 
 note to Rush. In addition he declared England's intentions 
 of accrediting consuls to the several provinces of Spanish 
 America, in order to give to her trade that character of 
 permanence and security needed for commercial enterprises. 
 As for the question of a Congress, which he hated on principle, 
 Canning took up the attitude he always assumed in such a 
 case. He asserted the opinions and peculiar claims of Eng- 
 land and declared that she would go into no joint declaration 
 with Powers, whose opinions were less formed than her own. 
 It was in short his intention so to accumulate conditions, which 
 he publicly declared, and so to insist upon distinctions, that 
 England either took no part in the Congress, or entered into 
 it upon terms which caused the other members merely to be 
 witnesses and registers of her will. His action was effective 
 and though the Holy Alliance repeated its overtures, the 
 Congress never met. Moreover the appointment of British 
 consuls to the chief towns of the Spanish colonies had an 
 immense effect. It lent a great moral force to their existence 
 as States, it assured to them an enormous material assistance 
 
 * How real and urgent was the danger may be gathered from Sir 
 Robert Wilson— Ad. MSS. 30, 132. f. 98-100, Nov. 20-3 1823. "The 
 French are fortifying Cadiz and an armament in Spanish vessels is fitting 
 out for the West Indies — unless the British Government protects South 
 America or repeals the Foreign Enlistment Bill the western hemisphere 
 will again be peopled with slaves ? " 
 
Canning and the New World i8i 
 
 in the development, of their trade with Great Britain. The 
 United States had recognized their poHtical existence, but 
 her trade and her influence were far less than those of Britain. 
 Canning had also despatched a commission to examine the 
 stability of the Spanish American governments, and was now 
 awaiting their report to decide upon political recognition. 
 From henceforward the danger of armed interference was far 
 less. Canning had forced France to renounce it, the Holy 
 Alliance could only act through Russia, and Canning justly 
 held that Russia could not act alone. Thus he had stood 
 before the world as the champion of non-interference against 
 Legitimacy, of Liberty against despotism. 
 
 The Polignac Memorandum was not published till March, 
 1824, and meanwhile the United States had accomplished a 
 memorable stroke of policy. Adams, the Secretary, was far 
 more than Monroe the directing force of their policy, and is in 
 fact the greatest foreign minister America has produced. 
 Shrewd, cautious, and endowed with an indomitable will he 
 was a worthy rival to Canning. The overtures with Rush had 
 failed to produce a joint declaration, partly because some of 
 the legacy of selfishness and suspicion bequeathed by Castle- 
 reagh remained. Canning himself was not altogether trusted 
 by Adams, who declared that his proposals would have made 
 Amefica _ a. „'. ' little cQ ckboat- foHowing . iix .Jj3£...uiaa ke of ^ the 
 ^tllglisli.iijan=a£iSvar." A joint declaration of their intentions 
 was in Canning's favour and carried out his policy. It would 
 support the cause of constitutional monarchy, and hold the 
 balance between despotism and liberty. At the same time 
 that Adams feared France and wished to support England 
 against the Holy Alliance, he would not contribute to her 
 prestige or special interests. In the middle of September, 
 1823, Canning had again approached Rush and endeavoured 
 to meet his objections by these words * ' If the policy was 
 new . . " so also was the problem and full as much American as 
 European, to say no more . . The United States . . were tha 
 first power established on that continent, and now confessedly 
 the leading power . . . Could Europe expect this difference ? " 
 
 This was a most valuable lesson to the United States as to 
 her obligations and policy, and is the f last direct influence 
 
 * Reddaway-p. 50-1. 
 
 t It appears that the Memorandum of the conference with Polignac 
 was not shown to Rush, in time for him to communicate it to Adams 
 before the Presidential message of Dec. 2nd, 1823. Reddaway, pp. 53, 
 et seq. 
 
1 82 Life of Canning 
 
 exercised by Canning on American policy in 1823. In a 
 sense he was the author of the Monroe doctrine, in that he 
 laid down broad principles and made valuable suggestions, 
 but these were interpreted or rather twisted by Adams to a use 
 which he neither desired nor approved. The problem of 
 Adams was to make a declaration of policy, which should 
 keep the States clear of European entanglements while it 
 supported England in her resistance to French designs, 
 which should assert independence of England and vindicate 
 the principles of democracy as opposed to constitutionalism. 
 The solution was the famous presidential message of Dec. 
 2nd 1823, which contained the " Monroe" or more appropri- 
 ately the " Adams " doctrine. 
 
 The Monroe doctrine, as understood by Adams, contained 
 two principles in addition to a large amount of vague rhetoric 
 on the blessings of republicanism and liberty. These were 
 non-intervention of European powers in America, and the 
 recognition of the United States as the leading power in the 
 great Western Continent. The first doctrine in its extreme 
 form, prompted by the Ukase of the Czar, was stated as 
 follows :■ — " The American continents, by the free and 
 independent condition which they have assumed, and main- 
 tain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future 
 colonization by any European powers." In the second case, 
 admitting the right of Spain to continue the war, it is our 
 policy to consider the government de facto as the legitimate 
 government for us, "it is impossible that the allied powers should 
 extend their political system to any portion of either continent, 
 without endangering our peace and happiness . . It is equally 
 impossible therefore that we should behold such interposition 
 in any form, with indifference." In this last principle the 
 extraordinary skill of Adams is seen, for he induced Southern 
 i'jAmerica to look to the United States for protection and 
 .encouragement yet did n ot absolutely promise assistance. 
 He claimed the la ureFwi'fhbul ffe1dTTg'"bIoogsTTgg: ByThe 
 extension ol the " polft!cars5?st5ITngfTBe~?nIies " he meant 
 that the United States were tolerant of monarchy in America, 
 but were opposed to European attempts to establish it by 
 force or intrigue. Also though Adams asserted the 
 United States to be the leading Power in America he pro- 
 fessed absolute neutrality towards other American states. 
 This second part of the message Canning qualified slightly 
 by explaining to Chateaubriand that, if it was interpreted 
 as condemning the interference of Spain herself with 
 
Canning and the New World 183 
 
 Spanish America, it would constitute as " important a 
 difference between their view of the subject and ours as it 
 is impossible to conceive." The first part of the message — 
 the condemnation of all future colonization of America by 
 European Powers — was peculiarily offensive to Canning. 
 It was a clever local adaptation of his own principle of non- 
 intervention. As he meant it to be universal any such 
 adaptation he was unequivocally prepared to combat. 
 Great Britain, he told Rush, " could not acknowledge the right 
 of any Power to proclaim such a principle much less to bind 
 other countries to the observance of it. If we were to be 
 repelled from America it would not matter whether that 
 repulsion were effected by the Ukase of Russia excluding 
 us from the sea ; or by the new doctrine of the President 
 excluding us from the land. But we cannot yield obedience 
 to either." These pretensions were in fact practically dis- 
 avowed, or at least largely qualified through Canning's in- 
 fluence. For the subsequent development of the Monroe 
 doctrine neither Canning nor Adams can be held as specially 
 responsible. Adams certainly never had the slightest idea 
 of proclaiming that the United States held a sort of pro- 
 tectorate over other American States. The United States 
 increasing in power, wealth and arrogance have used 
 the words of the Monroe doctrine just as we have used 
 Magna Carta, diverting or expanding the meaning to 
 suit later requirements and new claims. All that can be 
 said is that Adams asserted somewhat boldly the leading 
 position of the United States in the American con- 
 tinent, and by certain rash and certain mystic and 
 obscure phrases gave a very partial justification to the 
 pretensions of later times. Adams' assertion of the prin- 
 ciples of neutrality and non-intervention for his own country 
 in its dealing with other American States indeed expressly 
 disclaimed such ideas. Though Adams did something to 
 make possible a Pan-American ideal, it is probable that had 
 he never lived President Cleveland or Roosevelt would have 
 found almost as much justification in other utterances by 
 former American statesmen. The extravagant pretensions 
 now advanced and claimed as part of the " Monroe Doc- 
 trine," though perhaps representative of the true power and 
 position of the United States in 1895 or 1901, were not those 
 which Canning could possibly have acknowledged or Adams 
 possibly have proclaimed in 1823. 
 
 The presidential message was received by the world with 
 
184 Life of Canning 
 
 something of astonishment. That the United States were 
 the leading power in America had been admitted, nay sug- 
 gested by Canning, but France and the Holy Alliance were 
 rudely awakened. The ingenious passage, which France and 
 the Holy Alliance took to imply opposition to their attack, 
 and the South Americans to imply assistance, produced 
 great effect. The Czar and his Ukase were dissolved into 
 space, and though Chateaubriand laughed at the Yankee \ 
 pinnaces defying the fleet of France, he feared they were I 
 but the tiny vanguard of England's mighty squadrons. I 
 Monroe was the instrument, but Canning was the trumpeter,"' 
 thought Continental diplomacy. /But insomuch as this 
 trumpet sounded a jaunty Republican note Canning could 
 hardly have relished the music. His great plan, by which the 
 United States were to join with him in 'a declaration which 
 would in effect support England, allegiance, and constitutional 
 liberty against tyranny or democracy, had failed. Moreover 
 Adams had shown a clear desire to draw a dividing line if 
 possible between America and .Europe. Towards the double 
 object of defeating the Holy Alliance and checking the 
 United States Canning's policy was now to be directed. 
 
 Though displeased with the independent action of the 
 United States, Canning felt he could turn it to account in 
 Europe. He had received a moral support England badly 
 needed, and he further reaped advantage from the fact that 
 the Holy Alliance fancied his actions and those of Monroe 
 were evidence of a secret agreement. He was enabled there- 
 fore finally to decline to take any part in the Conference on 
 American affairs, which Ferdinand, France and the Holy 
 Alliance were urging. His firm refusal, announced in 
 December-January, 1823-4, dissolved yet another project of a 
 concert for the Government of the world upon " legitimate " 
 principles. Austria and Russia declared " it would be idle to 
 think of it when _ Great Britain declines being a party to it." 
 But if he declined Congresses Canning was resolved to intro- 
 duce Europe into America, though not upon the principles of 
 the Holy Alliance. He would save Cuba, "the pearl of the 
 Antilles," from Yankee clutches, and if possible would reconcile 
 Spain to recognition. The offer of mediation, so often already 
 put forward, was pressed more earnestly than ever.* He 
 explained that a Spanish acknowledgment of independency 
 would be hailed with pleasure by England, but that our recog- 
 
 * Spain— F.O. 284 — Despatches to A'Court— Passim. 
 
Canning and the New World 185 
 
 nition would not be dependent upon it. Canning seems to 
 have done everything possible to conciliate Spain. He clearly 
 expressed his preference for some kind of monarchical 
 governments established in the revolted colonies. Most of 
 them he said were unsuited to be republics, which the unend- 
 ing cycle of revolution anarchy and dictatorships has certainly 
 proved. He was willing to guarantee Cuba to Spain as the 
 price of recognition, he was even willing that Spain herself 
 should retain certain rights of suzerainty and trade, though 
 an attempt to revive the old exclusive trade monopolies would 
 produce instant recognition from England. -Forcible inter- 
 vention would have the same result, for England took " higher 
 ground than that of commercial facilities." Lastly he warned 
 Spain by England's example in 1783 — "to learn the inexpedi- 
 ency of delaying recognition till all the grace of granting it, 
 and all the advantages by which that concession may be com- 
 pensated, are lost." 
 
 Spain shuffled and delayed, invincible in her obstinacy and 
 prejudices. Meanwhile Canning's Commission of Inquiry re- 
 turned from South America with their report, which gave a 
 general impression that attempts to win iack the allegiance of 
 the colonies to Spain by arms or negotiations were in the one 
 case waste of blood and treasure, in the other loss of time and 
 opportunity. I As early as March, 1824, Canning perceived that 
 other nations might recognize the South American colonies, and 
 so make the action of England valueless. Chateaubriand, the 
 most enthusiastic agitator for French action, was dismissed 
 the Foreign Office, and Villele in speeches on June nth and 
 1 8th declared non-intervention to be the policy of France. 
 This was a remarkable triumph for Canning and a great blow 
 to the Holy Alliance, for Villele had now proclaimed in 
 Europe what Adams had in America, and both were imitators 
 of Canning. He now feared either that France would forestall 
 England in political recognition, or that despite many dis- 
 claimers she would make this oiTer as a bribe or a threat to 
 obtain some concession, like Cuba, from Spain or her revolted 
 colonies. The Report of the Commission was to be Canning's 
 excuse for recognition, and it must be admitted that body had 
 somewhat misused its advantages. Henry VIH's agents were 
 sent out to destroy the monasteries and adjusted their evidence 
 to their end. Canning's commissioners were at least intended 
 to give as plausible a case as possible for recognition. Mexico 
 was disturbed by the attempts of an adventurer, called Iturbide, 
 to set up an empire, but Colombia, Bolivia, Buenos Ayres and 
 
 12 
 
1 86 Life of Canning 
 
 Chile were under governments as stable and constitutions as 
 good as they have ever been since, though "the present bayonet 
 was often the present god." In Peru only was a balanced 
 struggle maintained, and the victory of Bolivar at Ayacucho in 
 August, 1824, destroyed the last hopes of the Royalists. In July 
 23rd, i824,Canning concluded a commercial treaty with Buenos 
 Ayres, and so formal a document amounted almost to political 
 recognition. The French continued to occupy Spain, refusing 
 to say when they would evacuate it. Ferdinand and 
 Alexander continued to fulminate and protest. France and 
 the United States continued their intrigues. The time was 
 clearly action ripe. 
 
 It remained only for Canning to overcome the opposition in 
 the Cabinet. Here it was most determined and resolute, headed 
 by Wellington, Sidmouth and Eldon. Wellington thought 
 himself driven by a revolutionary to support revolutionary 
 measures. He offered to resign and bitterly protested against 
 the abandonment of the old principle. Westmoreland, the * 
 ' sot prive,' while professing to agree in measures disapproved 
 in words, and communicated his disapproval to the French 
 Court. The King played the most ignoble part of all, openly 
 sending a memorandum of disapproval to the Cabinet, but 
 secretly negotiating with Lieven and Metternich and protest- 
 ing his desire to dismiss Canning. He used some incredibly 
 t unadvised expressions in a letter to Metternich, but his 
 " intemperance and miscalculation brought this intrigue to a 
 premature denouement and obliged him to give in." Canning 
 would not yield. " A plot was devised for the ides of 
 December to change the policy of the goverment by changing 
 me" he wrote. " I would have resigned on the S.A. question ; 
 
 * So called by the French because he was Privy Seal (sceau). — Sidmouth 
 retired from the Cabinet in consequence of these disputes. He had 
 already resigned the Home-Secretaryship, but had retained a seat in the 
 Cabinet. 
 
 t Canning to Granville— March 11 1825 Correspce. Stapleton I. 258, 
 For other details of this royal perfidy v. Tom Moore's Life and Diary. 
 V. 230. Canning has often been blamed for appointing Lord Francis 
 Conyngham to be his under Foreign Secretary. Scandal said that it was 
 in order to curry favour with the king. This is unlikely and if it was true 
 it certainly failed in its object. What is more likely is that Lord Francis 
 was, like Sir William Knighton, one of the agents who conducted the 
 royal intrigues with foreign powers. To give him an official position 
 under the Foreign Secretary at once sealed his lips and made him incap- 
 able of such action, for which his position at Court especially qualified 
 him. The letter of Canning's we quote lends probability to this sugges- 
 tion, and shows Canning was determined to stop these intrigues at all 
 hazards, which after 1825 he almost completely succeeded in doing. 
 
Canning and the New World 187 
 
 and I would have declared openly that I was driven from office 
 by the Holy Alliance ; and, further, that the system, which I 
 found established, of personal communications between the 
 sovereign and foreign Ministers was one under which no 
 English minister could do his duty. If after this . . the 
 Lievens and Esterhazy did not find London too hot for them 
 I know nothing of the temper of the English nation." The 
 King's public conduct towards Canning resembled his 
 behaviour in private life. One day he fondled poor Perdita 
 Robinson, or plighted his troth to Mrs. Fitzherbert, the next 
 he abandoned the one and betrayed the other. He reversed 
 the process with Canning, in that he began by treachery and 
 ended with affection. But there is enough in his conduct at 
 this time to justify the indescribable bitterness of that satire 
 of Moore's, where he imagines the various courtiers naming 
 their favourite airs, with the result that 
 
 " In choosing songs the Regent named ; — 
 ' Had / a tongue for falsehood framed ! ' " 
 
 But opposition open and secret were both in vain. After 
 several cabinets — the last protracted for three hours — 
 Canning emerged flushed and triumphant with his decision 
 carried. On the last day of 1824 he wrote to inform the 
 Spanish Government of his resolve to recognize immedi- 
 iately Columbia, Mexico and Buenos Ayres. He dictated 
 the notes informing those States of his intentions from his 
 bed, to which he was confined by illness. This decision 
 was communicated to Parliament in February in the speech 
 from the throne. As the King had lost his false teeth it fell, 
 ironically enough, to Eldon to deliver it, which he did with a 
 very bad grace arid no enthusiasm. The announcement was 
 hailed with equal joy by English merchants and the repre- 
 sentatives of the new States. The past enterprises of the 
 British merchants had been characterised by great lack of 
 insight, for they despatched skates and warming-pans to the 
 tropical parts of South America, and sent Highland milk- 
 maids out to manufacture butter in countries, whose inhabit- 
 ants preferred oil and whose cows disliked being milked. 
 They now not only engaged in these hasty speculations 
 but no longer hesitated to embark in more permanent enter- 
 prises, such as mining and territorial concerns. The new" 
 States, who drew all their stores from England and were 
 described by Chateaubriand as a species of British colonies, 
 felt an increase in dignity and strength. Their recognition by 
 the United States was a local and as it were parochialme asure 
 
1 88 Life of Canning 
 
 that by England secured them for ever from the Holy 
 Alliance and France, as well as gave them a complete interna- 
 tional status and position. It introduced America into 
 Europe and Europe into America, and both were safe- 
 guarded from attack by Canning's favourite principle of non- 
 intervention. It was an ingenious and eiifective answer to the 
 Monroe doctrine. * " The thing is done. ... an act which will 
 make a change in the face of the world almost as great as that 
 of the discovery of the Continent now set free. The Yankees 
 will shout in triumph, but it is they who lose most by our 
 decision. The great danger of the time, a danger which the 
 European system would have fostered, was a division of the 
 world into European and American, Republican and Monarch- 
 ical, a league of worn-out governments on the one hand, and 
 of youthful and stirring States, with the United States on 
 the other. We slip in between and plant ourselves in Mexico. 
 The United States have got the start of us in vain ; and we 
 link once more America to Europe. Six months more, and 
 the mischief would have been done." The recognition was 
 certainly opportune, it bound closer the new States to 
 England, it restrained the pretensions of the Yankees, and 
 preserved Cuba to Spain The Panama Congress of 1826, 
 where Bolivar discussed the question of a union of American 
 States, was overshadowed by Canning, and partly through his 
 influence the alliance between the United States and the 
 South American Republics was never formed. Over Bolivar 
 Canning had extraordinary influence. The Liberator feared 
 the designs of the United States, and preferred England as a 
 defence against both them and the European Powers. 
 "Bolivar," wrote Sir tj^obert Wilson, his constant corres- 
 pondent and confidant, " Ts "greatly afraid of the old Spaniards 
 and French getting any foothold on the South American 
 continent, and wishes to form as close a union as possible with 
 England." J" Bolivar's esteem for Canning," wrote Ponsonby to 
 Sir Robert Wilson, " as an enlightened and powerful friend to 
 South American prosperity is well founded ; because I feel 
 certain of the perfect sincerity with which Canning directed 
 the powers of his mind, of his personal influence, and of his 
 ministerial station, to the perfection of that system of policy 
 which guards American independence and cherishes the 
 
 *Stapleton. E. J. Correspce. I. 26710 Hookham Frere. Jan. 8, 1825. 
 
 t Ad. MSS. 30, 132. April 18, 1825. 
 
 tAd. MSS. 30, III. Aug. 1827. 
 
Canning and the New World 189 
 
 growth of our adolescent strength ; and because Mr. C. feels 
 it to the solid interest of his own country to have these 
 vast regions, free, happy and rich." So far then was Canning 
 successful. Recognition was in fact creation, and the 
 international legalizer of a quarter of the globe may be 
 pardoned for a little conscious vanity. It is unfortunate that 
 the politics of South America have afforded more valuable 
 materials to fiction and comic opera than to constitutional 
 text-books. The lack of a middle-class, the mixture of races, 
 the ignorance and corruption, the absence both of traditions 
 and political aptitude, the sluggishness of the climate and 
 the races, have all contributed to this sorry result. But as 
 trade centres they have become increasingly valuable, and as 
 commerce was the * chief reason of their recognition so it is 
 the chief justification of their existence. Even now nearly a 
 tenth of our exports (some ;^2 5, 000,000) go to South America, 
 and as we were the first to give them political independence, 
 so they now give economic recognition to such trade of ours 
 as is repelled by the higher tariffs of the nations of Europe. 
 If Canning then was not ultimately a political, he was par- 
 tially — and to some extent — an economic Columbus. 
 
 But at the time the recognition had a European as well as 
 an American aspect. " It has set the Continent quite wild 
 with rage and joy. hope and fear," wrote t Sir Robert Wilson. 
 ' Rely on it, Villele and Russia will be revenged for the loss 
 of the many Bourbon shares contracted in America, and for the 
 blowing up of the Holy Alliance mine." The Holy Ambassadors 
 sat in the Spanish Foreign office in permanent consultation 
 over the terrible news. Finally Ferdinand authorised Zea, his 
 Foreign Minister, to reply to Canning characterizing the 
 colonies " as infants in strength but old in crime, supported by 
 ambition and defended by blood and anarchy." He professed 
 first that the colonies were not in a sufficient state of stabiHty, 
 and next that England was encouraging rebellion, by recogniz- 
 ing defacto governments and " making war against the prin- 
 ciples of Legitimacy upon which the stability of all the old 
 Governments depend." In point of fact the colonies were 
 probably as stable as the government of old Spain at that 
 time and for the next forty years. But the colonies as de 
 
 * Exports to South America— 1822, ^3,800,000; 1823, ;^5,6oo,oc», or 
 about f th of our total exports and far greater than our trade with the 
 United States at this time. 
 
 t To Earl Grey Feb. 1st 1825. Ad. MSS. 30, I32f. 130 Zea's despatch 
 is in Spain F.O. 299. Jan. 21st, 1825. 
 
I go Life of Canning 
 
 facto governments could not be recognized by Legitimacy at 
 any time, however stable they might be, so that Zea's two 
 statements were contradictory according to his own principles. 
 Canning replied by utterly denying the theory of legitimacy, 
 "Was a de facto government never to be entitled to recognition? 
 Were time and circumstances never to produce any change? 
 To have continued to call that a possession of Spain in which 
 all Spanish occupation and power had been actually ex- 
 tinguished and effaced could have rendered no practical 
 service to the mother-country, but it would have risked the 
 peace of the world ! As all political communities are 
 responsible to other political communities for their conduct, 
 Spain would always be liable to be called to account for the 
 actions of her colonial subjects, over whom she had actually 
 no control. Nothing more ridiculous in fact or more practi- 
 cally inconvenient for Spain herself could well be conceived." 
 This was in words the most effective destruction of 
 legitimacy, and it was supported by deeds, for a whole 
 continent had under Canning's influence defied and disavowed 
 this absurd principle. Legitimacy — the new divine right of 
 kings — now nursed an incurable wound — a most salutary 
 result of the recognition of the New World. No assembly of 
 European crowned heads would now dare or presume to force 
 their governments and principles upon the world. We are 
 told that Cromwell made every king feel a stiffness in his 
 neck, and Canning had made every despot perceive the 
 looseness of his crown. 
 
 The direct political effect upon France was as great as the 
 moral effect upon Europe. France had retained Cadiz for 
 the definite if unavowed purpose of wringing concessions from 
 Spain or England. Once the Colonies were recognized 
 it became useless and unnecessary for France to occupy Spain, 
 which they therefore evacuated. Canning in the most famous 
 of all his speeches has vindicated his policy. The speech 
 has indeed a ring of egoism — which his colleagues did not 
 relish — but his almost single-handed struggle in the Cabinet, 
 his endless difficulties and vexations must serve as his 
 excuse. * " Is the Spain of the present day indeed the nation 
 whose puissance was expected to shake England from her sphere ? 
 No, sir, it was Spain " with the Indies " that excited the 
 jealousies and alarmed the imagination of our ancestors. But 
 then, sir, the balance of power ! The entry of the French 
 
 * Speech on affairs of Portugal, Dec. 12, 1806. 
 
Canning and the New World 191 
 
 army into Spain disturbed tliat balance, and we ought to have 
 gone to war to restore it ! To look to the policy of Europe 
 in the times of William and Anne for the purpose of regulating 
 the balance of power in Europe at the present day, is to 
 disregard the progress of events and to confuse dates and 
 facts which throw a reciprocal light upon each other . . Was 
 there no other mode of resistance than by a direct attack upon 
 France? Might not compensations for disparagement be 
 obtained, and the policy of our ancestors vindicated by means 
 better adapted to the present time? If France occupied 
 Spain, was it necessary in order to avoid the consequences of 
 that occupation — that we should blockade Cadiz ? No ! I 
 looked another way. I sought 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." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE COLONIES AND THE SLAVE TRADE 
 BRAZIL AND PORTUGAL 
 
 During 1823 Robinson became Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 and Huskisson President of the Board of Trade ; both were 
 followers of Canning, and their influence on the financial 
 system of the country was immediate and beneficial. Huskis- 
 son was the best practical financier of his day, and to him 
 Canning generously ascribed " the full and undivided glory " 
 of all the improvements effected by reduced tariffs and new 
 commercial treaties. But Canning proved a great assistance, 
 to him, for his influence carried his measures in the Cabinet, 
 his grasp of general economic principles was firm, and he 
 never consented even to Huskisson's detailed alterations until 
 he had carefully examined the proposals. Canning was in 
 theory a free-trader, but he held that the artificial restraints 
 or stimulations, created by an outworn and unscientific system 
 of protection, must be gradually removed or adjusted to 
 modern conditions. As far back as 1809 Canning had 
 sketched the plan of these reforms, one of the many instances 
 of the continuity of his earlier and late policies. " A liberal 
 system of commerce " he writes * " formed' upon a basis of 
 Reciprocity and mutual convenience, which by discontinuing 
 .... certain prohibitory duties might procure the most solid 
 advantages on both sides to the national productions and 
 industry, and give due protection at the same time to the 
 public revenue and to the interests of fair and legal trade." 
 He never demanded exclusive rights for England in the 
 matter of trade, t but was prepared to retaliate against 
 
 * The quotation above is from Portugal F.O. 73. 
 
 t The famous rhyming despatch is an instance of Retaliation — Canning 
 to Sir Charles Bagot, 1826. {Note continuedp. 19J). 
 
The Colonies and the Slave Trade 193 
 
 unfair and exceptional treatment. His whole policy was to 
 prepare the way for Free Trade, believing that an increase of 
 commerce and industry in other nations implied no necessary 
 harm to us, and that our commercial prosperity would contri- 
 bute to that of other countries. The old system of monopoly 
 produced by the Navigation Laws, which required all goods 
 from Africa, Asia and America to be conveyed in British 
 ships, was now obsolete and absurd. Robinson and Huskisson 
 repealed these old statutes, swept away discriminating duties 
 revised and limited the articles on which duties and excise 
 was exacted, especially the heavy duties levied on raw 
 matierials, codified the customs law, and promoted 
 Reciprocity. The old absurd and excessive impositions 
 were reduced or abandoned, and new commercial treaties 
 negotiated with every Power. The result of these wise 
 measures was to evoke order from chaos, to adjust our 
 revenue to a peace footing and our tariff to new conditions 
 and demands. When we recollect the incidents of the skates 
 and the milkmaids, which were by no means isolated, it is 
 not surprising that there were failures among the merchants 
 and traders. But the many and constant commercial crises of 
 the time, especially the panic of 1825, were abated in violence 
 and narrowed in range and extent by these wise measures 
 of the Government. Yet a greater service than all these 
 was the removal of the system, which had cramped and bound 
 trade between England and her colonies who however shared 
 in the Navigation Laws. The reversal of that narrow and 
 selfish economic policy, which England had forced on her 
 colonies, was the prelude not only to their prosperity, but to 
 that larger political freedom which they were one day to enjoy. 
 It showed the Home Government were at length conscious of 
 duties toward their Colonies, anxious to promote their welfare 
 Continued from p. 192. 
 
 " In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch 
 Is giving too little and asking too much. 
 With equal protection the French are content. 
 So we'll lay on Dutch bottoms just twenty per cent. 
 Chorus of Officers J — ' We'll lay on, etc." 
 Chorus of douaniers "nous frapperons Falck avec twenty per cent." 
 The actual form and existence of this famousand unhappily unique despatch 
 were questioned a few years ago. Fortunately the true and proper version 
 has been discovered at the Foreign Office, a copy of which is placed 
 at the Record Office, Holland, F. O. 147. The date is between Jan. 
 31st, and Feb. 20th. 1826, and is probably the earlier date. The circum- 
 stances explain themselves, but it may be noted that Falck was the Dutch 
 Foreign Minister, 
 
194 Life of Canning 
 
 and ready to make sacrifices in their favour. Towards all 
 this wide adjustment of our commercial relations Canning 
 greatly contributed by advice influence and support, whilst 
 his policy aimed as much at commercial security as at 
 political influence. 
 
 In only one respect was Canning willing to make some 
 sacrifice of our commercial interests, and that was in his 
 attempts to abolish the Slave-trade. From the moment of 
 his entry into political life he had advocated that cause. He 
 had even quarrelled with Pitt, because that Minister, though 
 prodigal of eloquent platitudes, had done nothing to alleviate 
 the conditions or abolish the practice of slavery. It is perhaps 
 the gravest charge against him as a minister, for a stroke of 
 his pen would at once have produced an order in Council to that 
 effect. Canning's first great speech on the subject was on 
 March 1st, 1799, when he attacked those who pleaded age 
 and long usage as a defence of slavery. " Has the slave 
 trade," he asked indignantly, " to plead former merits, services 
 and glories on behalf of its present foulness and disgrace ? . . 
 No, its infant lips were stained with blood. Its whole exist- 
 tence has been a series of rapacity, cruelty and murder." On 
 May 27th, 1802, he introduced a motion requesting the 
 Government to use the newly-acquired island of Trinidad as 
 an experiment in abolition. In this place at least it might be 
 abolished, traders must understand that they would receive 
 no compensation in such a case, large grants and sales of 
 property to capitalists might be prevented, and the native 
 population might be assigned land and reared on the soil. 
 The proposal, though statesmanlike and backed by a wealth 
 of arguments, was rejected. In 1807 Fox carried an Act 
 abolishing slavery for English owners. Canning dissenting 
 on purely technical and, it must be admitted, factious grounds. 
 But the colonial slavery still remained and other countries 
 seized advantage from our cessation, and increased their 
 unhallowed traffic. While in office (1807-9) even amid the 
 death struggle with Napoleon, Canning endeavoured to 
 restrict and lessen this evil. Many projects were discussed, 
 a treaty with Portugal and Brazil restricted their areas of 
 slave-traffic exclusively to land south of the line, and pres- 
 sure was brought to bear on Tunis and the Porte. Castle- 
 reagh afterwards obtained a denunciation of slavery from 
 the Congress of Vienna, and subsequently pressed for its 
 abolition. 
 
 " The slave trade requires no comments," wrote Castlereagh 
 
The Colonies and the Slave Trade 195 
 
 in his Instructions for Verona. All the difference between 
 him and Canning is here expressed. The one was cold and 
 indifferent, the other warm-hearted, generous and passionate. 
 Canning felt that comments were urgently needed, and wrote 
 a lengthy despatch to Wellington immediately to press the 
 question of* "that scandal of the civilised world." The 
 restrictions had not been all for good, as " the dread of detec- 
 tion suggests expedients of concealment productive of the 
 most dreadful sufferings to a cargo, of which it hardly ever 
 seems to occur to its remorseless owners that it consists of 
 sentient beings. . . . The probable profits are notoriously 
 calculated only on the survivors, and the mortality is ac- 
 cordingly frightful to a degree unknown, since the attention 
 of mankind was first called to the horror of this traffic." 
 France, in spite of protests, was a great offender. He pro- 
 poses, if all else fails, to secure abolition by purchase. This 
 policy had already succeeded under his direction (1809) 
 wholly with Spain and partly with Portugal, and was 
 eventually to be the method of bringing our colonies to 
 acquiescence. He now used every effort to bring about 
 amelioration and improvement of the slave's lot by an Order 
 in Council. Though hampered by some colleagues and 
 opposed by others — especially the procrastinating Eldonf — 
 he at length brought his resolutions before Parliament. 
 
 On March 24th, 1824, Canning introduced and carried his 
 proposals, which were based on his motion of twenty years 
 before, but he declared them no longer an experiment, but an 
 example. A series of enactments provided for the gradual 
 amelioration of the condition of the slave. Schools and 
 churches were to be established for his instruction in secular 
 and religious knowledge. Marriage among slaves was to be 
 encouraged, families were under no circumstances to be 
 separated by purchase and placed on different estates. The 
 slave was given a legal position, he was to be capable of 
 holding and transmitting property, and able to purchase the 
 freedom of himself and his family. Banks were to be 
 established for his savings. His evidence was to be ad- 
 missible in a court of law, on the certificate of his instructors 
 and teachers. Sunday markets and labour were to cease, 
 and the shocking and degrading practice of applying the 
 whip to females was to be abolished. The use of the whip 
 
 * Oct. 15, 1822, F.O. Continent 46. 
 I Correspondence. Stapleton, E.J. I, 47. 
 
196 Life of Canning 
 
 was retained for males, but was carefully regulated and 
 defined. These were gradual and partial measures, but it 
 was useless to urge total abolition, and expect instant effect 
 from a single enactment. Carefully graduated measures 
 would not only free individual slaves, but abolish the status 
 altogether. "In dealing with the negro, we must remember 
 that we are dealing with a being possessing the form and 
 strength of a man, but the intellect only of a child. To turn 
 him loose in the manhood of his physical strength, in the 
 maturity of his physical passions, but in the infancy of his 
 uninstructed reason, would be to raise up a creature re- 
 sembling the splendid fiction of a* recent romance ; the hero 
 of which constructs a human form, with all the corporeal 
 capabilities of a man, and with the thews and sinews of a 
 giant ; but being unable to impart to the work of his hands a 
 perception of right and wrong, he finds too late that he has 
 only created a more than mortal power of doing mischief, and 
 himself recoils from the monster he has made." What is all 
 the sad and disillusioning history of the relations of Europeans 
 to the subject races of the tropics during the last century but 
 the truest confirmation of these words ! How infinitely 
 superior is the statesman with his practical insight, when 
 accompanied as here with deep feeling and sympathy, to the 
 mere emotional and reckless clamour of even such dis- 
 interested and wise abolitionists as Wilberforce or Clarkson ! 
 In his resolve to ameliorate the conditions of the slave. 
 Canning was certain to meet with determined colonial opposi- 
 tion. The Crown Colony Governments — such as Trinidad or 
 St. Lucia — could be easily persuaded, but with a colony like 
 Jamaica, possessed of a parliament with large legislative 
 powers, it was more difficult to deal. Its members protested 
 against the interference of the Home Government with the 
 most unmeasured violence. The old Tory methods suggested 
 the application of direct force, or a more hateful and insidious 
 compulsion, by harassing them with fiscal regulations or en- 
 actments restraining their navigation. Canning advocated 
 the slow and silent course of temperate but authoritative 
 admonition. The insults levelled at the English Parliament 
 he disregarded, her supreme unquestioned authority he was 
 unwilling either to enforce or even to assert. He would 
 treat the patriotic and furious agitator of the Jamaica 
 assembly with patience and humour, " by taking from him all 
 
 * " Frankenstein," by Mrs. Shelley. The earliest and the only happy 
 use of this simile. 
 
The Colonies and the Slave Trade 197 
 
 lofty grounds of quarrel, by disappointing his patriotic ardour 
 of contentious topics of inflammation ; and by leaving him to 
 found his insurrection, if insurrection he will have, on an 
 abstract admiration of the cartwhip, and a resolute claim of 
 his freeborn right to use that instrument at his pleasure." In 
 1 819,* Goulburn had defined our relations with the colonies 
 as follows ; we retained " a monopoly of colonial commerce," 
 in return for affording them protection and defence. Canning 
 had already relaxed this economic control, and his attitude on 
 this political question was reasonable and moderate. Perhaps 
 no statesman, previous to Lord Durham, viewed the connec- 
 tion between the colonies and the motherland in so just and 
 steady a light. No man saw with more pride the vast extent 
 of our empire, but none knew better the slenderness of its 
 links of union, no man was more anxious to pursue a policy 
 of conciliation and compromise towards the colonies, to pro- 
 mote unity of sentiment and interest, and to introduce into 
 the Old World the vigour and ideas of the New. 
 
 The history of our negotiations with Brazil and Portugal 
 (1822-7) shows the later developments of Canning's political 
 and commercial system. After the Portuguese Court had 
 retired to Brazil during the Napoleonic invasion, the colony 
 rather than the mother-country became the centre of the 
 Portuguese Empire. Grandiose schemes were meditated in 
 the New World and Portugal bitterly complained of neglect. 
 More than once the Court had promised to return, and Canning 
 had vainly proceeded as plenipotentiary to Lisbon to welcome 
 it. This discontent at its delay united with other causes to 
 produce the Liberal revolution of 1820. The Council of 
 Regency was dissolved and a popular constitution was pro- 
 claimed. In July, 1821, however the King unexpectedly 
 returned from Brazil, swore to accept the constitution and 
 succeeded in producing tranquillity. Castlereagh had observed 
 the attitude indicated in the State paper of 5th May, 1820, and 
 had advised the King to accept what he could save from the 
 wreck of his power. The invasion of Spain by France in 
 1823 awakened the ambitions of Portugal.f De Neuville the 
 French ambassador secretly urged the Portuguese to join 
 Angoul^me in the attack upon Cadiz. He also intimated — 
 with the implied consent of the ambassadors of Spain and the 
 
 *"The principle he said was based on sound policy and ought not 
 rashly to be abandoned." Canning had other views. 
 T Canning to A'Court, Spain. F. O. 300, Dec. 15. 1823. 
 
198 Life of Canning 
 
 Holy Alliance — that his most faithful Majesty of Portugal 
 would receive support if he decided to " improve the internal 
 institutions of his kingdom," and determined " to maintain his 
 royal authority absolute and unfettered by the grant of new 
 or revival of ancient institutions." Canning held fast to his 
 policy of non-interference. He declared " no combination of 
 great Powers can justify the infliction of injury upon a smaller 
 one,' and announced that England though having nothing to 
 do with the internal institutions of Portugal, was bound by 
 treaty to defend her if attacked or if any attempt was made 
 by a foreign Power to control the free agency of the King of 
 Portugal. Canning thus shielded Portugal from other Powers, 
 who proposed to force on her the principles of Legitimacy. 
 But at the same time he told her that, if she engaged in an 
 unjust aggression upon Spanish territory, England's obligations 
 to defend her would be annulled. This admirably firm and 
 resolute language restrained the ambitious designs of Portugal. 
 Canning, while expressly disclaiming the right of authoritative 
 interference, warned the King by the example of Spain to 
 maintain his promise to grant a constitution. The King 
 adopted this advice and called moderate Liberals to his 
 ministerial council. Though a request for British troops was 
 refused a British squadron was sent to the Tagus, to provide 
 for the personal safety of the King in case of need. 
 
 During the winter of 1823 the Absolutists headed by the 
 Queen and Miguel — the heir-apparent and commander-in- 
 chief — gained ground and were secretly encouraged by de 
 Neuville and the Holy Alliance. The Marquis de Loul6, the 
 Master of the Horse, was secretly murdered, and on April 30th, 
 1824, Don Miguel made several arrests and invested the royal 
 palace with his troops. After a week of anxiety and suspense 
 the King sought refuge on a British man-of-war. This clever 
 move brought Don Miguel to his senses, but it remained to 
 restore order and tranquillity. De Neuville at once came 
 forward and offered to give the loan of the French garrison of 
 Badajoz. The King rejected this insidious proposal and 
 asked for aid from England. Never was Canning in a more 
 terrible difficulty. To accept would amount to an interference 
 in internal affairs which he so constantly deprecated, to refuse 
 would be to admit a French army into Portugal and to throw 
 the King unreservedly into French hands. It was in any case 
 impossible to send troops in time to be of service without 
 summoning Parliament. Canning, however, solved the 
 difficulty by proposing to send the German troops of the 
 
The Colonies and the Slave Trade 199 
 
 Elector of Hanover, who thus waived his authority as King of 
 England. Meantime he redoubled his remonstrances to 
 France. Chateaubriand, who had been the arch-deviser of the 
 intrigues carried out by De Neuville, was now dismissed. 
 Villele, who was trying to apply Canning's policy on a humbler 
 and smaller scale to the affairs of France, now proclaimed his 
 adherence to the principle of non-intervention. He disavowed 
 all the actions of De Neuville and recalled him for exceeding 
 his powers. Meanwhile the ever-faithful A'Court, despatched 
 to Lisbon in September, succeeded in completely restoring 
 British influence. 
 
 While the King of Portugal had been victorious over one 
 rebellious son in the Old World, he had been vanquished by 
 another in the New. Before leaving Brazil in 1821 he had made 
 large concessions to that province, given it an independent 
 status and a supreme court of judicature, and made his son 
 Pedro Regent. But no sooner did the Brazilians feel the balance 
 of dignity and power shifted from Rio to Lisbon than they 
 began to complain. Their restlessness coincided with the most 
 extravagant attempts on the part of the Portuguese Cortes to 
 re-establish their old authority. Don Pedro — placed between 
 the alternatives of abdication or separation — chose the latter. 
 He shewed a true popular instinct and cleverly won the 
 Liberals over to his side. In 1822 he was proclaimed Emperor 
 of Brazil and at once granted a liberal constitution and 
 avowed his independence of Portugal. Superior both in size, 
 wealth, and population Brazil would no longer submit to the 
 dictation of a petty European State. Canning interposed the 
 good offices of England, after Commissioners sent out from 
 Lisbon had been turned back from the harbour at Rio. On 
 September 2nd, 1823, Canning held a conference with the 
 Portuguese ambassador. He informed him that England 
 conceived it hopeless for Portugal to attempt to recover Brazil 
 by force. Her de facto political independence must be 
 recognized and a return to the old system of exclusive trade 
 monopoly was impossible. But England attached great im- 
 portance to the continuance of the monarchical or rather 
 imperial form of government in Brazil, and hoped for a union 
 of the American and European parts of the Portuguese 
 dominion under the House of Braganza. But everything 
 failed : Portugal, not content with a nominal superiority and 
 a preferential advantage in trade, stipulated for absolute 
 supremacy, which Brazil haughtily declined to acknowledge. 
 A conference between Brazilian and Portuguese plenipo- 
 
20O Life of Canning 
 
 tentiaries, attended by the Austrian ambassador and presided 
 over by Canning, was opened in July, 1824, at London. It was 
 not to be supposed that the Holy Allies would cease their 
 intrigues. Austria, Russia and Prussia had already 
 remonstrated with the King of Portugal for his liberalism. 
 Though they* " had not a transmarine colony, not a single 
 sail on the ocean which washed the shores of South America, 
 nor a bale of goods in the ports, they now issued protocols 
 which calmly discussed the relation of a mother-country to its 
 Colonies, and recommended perpetual war between them, by 
 which both might be destroyed, rather than that any influence 
 dangerous to legitimacy should be drawn from a compromise 
 by which both might be saved." A contre projet was then 
 drawn up by the Portuguese ministry on legitimist lines, and 
 circulated through the Courts of Europe. 
 
 Canning's project was thus rejected, but he soon showed 
 he would submit to no interference. England had been 
 asked to mediate, she would not therefore allow the 
 reference of this question to a Congress. Sir Charles 
 Stuart was despatched as Plenipotentiary to Lisbon, to 
 consult with the King and arrange possible terms, before 
 proceeding as mediator to Brazil. But even when thus 
 affronted by the absurd proposals of the Contre Projet 
 Canning's policy was disinterested and moderate. He even 
 offered to waive all commercial advantages secured by the 
 treaty, which he had himself negotiated with Brazil in 1809 
 and which had been " profoundly beneficial " to England, if 
 that would facilitate agreement between Portugal and Brazil. 
 Such abnegation is rare indeed in diplomacy. Canning at the 
 same time, knowing that Metternich desired the separation of 
 the two crowns of Brazil and Portugal so long as the principle 
 of Legitimacy could be saved, skilfully used the influence of 
 Austria to back Sir Charles Stuart in his mission. Stuart 
 signed a treaty at Rio in August, 1825, recognizing the 
 independence of Brazil, and promoting a friendly intercourse 
 between the two nations. Last of all Canning used this 
 opportunity to obtain from Brazil, as from all the other 
 American colonies, a promise to abolish the slave-trade. 
 Brazil had however been the worst offender and the most 
 frequent merchant in this infamous traffic. Don Pedro 
 hesitated and demurred but Canning was firm. The last 
 formalities of a treaty definitely abolishing the slave trade 
 
 * Stapleton. Pol. Life, III. 304-5. 
 
The Colonies and the Slave Trade 201 
 
 between Africa and Brazil were at length concluded eight 
 days after the chief negotiator was no more (Aug. 17th, 1827). 
 
 But hardly was a separation between Brazil and Portugal 
 effected than chance again wrought their union. In March, 
 1826, the King of Portugal died, with his last breath banishing 
 Don JVIiguel, and appointing his daughter Isabella Maria (not 
 yet of age) Regent with a council. The Crown legally 
 devolved on his imperial son Don Pedro, for Sir Charles 
 Stuart's treaty had said nothing of the succession. Don 
 Miguel was in exile, but possessed a large body of adherents 
 in the army and among the Absolutists of Portugal. The 
 Holy Allies, the Kings of Spain and France, at once saw 
 opportunities to interfere. Don Pedro proceeded to grant a 
 fresh* constitution to Portugal, to appoint a Regency, and 
 to use ambiguous phrases which did not definitely imply 
 that he was resigning the Portuguese Crown. Sir Charles 
 Stuart, divested of his diplomatic character, carried this 
 Charter to Portugal. This was unfortunate, because it 
 gave the impression that England was forcing her own 
 principles upon Portugal. Stuart was now a private indi- 
 vidual and behaved with extraordinary indiscretion. But so 
 anxious was Canning to secure to Portugal the benefits of 
 Constitutional government, that he stretched a point and 
 refused explicitly to disavow him. He urged the Regency 
 to accept Don Pedro's proposals, though he declared the 
 Constitution could not be valid unless accepted by the 
 Portuguese nation, as represented by the Cortes or some other 
 body. 
 
 Canning's advocacy was successful ; the Infanta Maria and 
 the Cortes accepted the Constitutional Charter on August ist, 
 1826. So deadly a foe was Metternich to representative 
 government that, though he desired the separation of Brazil 
 and Portugal, he urged the Emperor Pedro to continue the 
 connection until he could abolish some of" the more objection- 
 able (i.e. popular) features of the constitution." The ambas- 
 sadors of the Holy Allies, with those of France Sardinia, 
 Denmark and Spain, absented themselves from the ceremony 
 of the Installation of the Constitutional Charter. Canning 
 pointed out with biting sarcasm to these Powers that the 
 Legitimacy which they professed meant that the sovereign 
 should not grant a constitution save of his own free will. If, 
 as all admitted, Don Pedro had granted it freely, where was 
 
 *The constitution of 1820-1 had been at length abrogated by John VI. 
 
 13 
 
202 Life of Canning 
 
 the case for interference or dissent ? Canning could afford to 
 laugh at the Allies, but the French troops still occupied Spain. 
 Don Pedro's concessions had been intentionally ambiguous, so 
 that if he saw the chance he might reassert his authority. 
 Canning held that the acceptance of the constitution in effect 
 ended Don Pedro's authority ; he gave him full credit for his 
 sacrifice, but would not let him recall what he had already 
 given. But Ferdinand of Spain, the most irreconcilable of 
 bigots, just now at the height of reaction, was the most 
 dangerous enemy to the new constitution. Pedro's ambigui- 
 ties and Don Miguel's claims afforded him a pretext for 
 interference and intrigue. Some Portuguese troops openly 
 acknowledged Don Miguel, mercenaries and volunteers began 
 to arm and assemble in Spain with the avowed object of 
 overthrowing the Portuguese Constitution. Ferdinand openly 
 encouraged them and refused to acknowledge the Regency. 
 Canning used every effort to calm the just resentment felt by 
 the Portuguese Regency. He was in Paris during October, 
 1826, where he took so firm a line that Damas, the French 
 Minister, at once disclaimed all intentions of interference on 
 the part of France. At the same time Canning steadfastly 
 refused to do anything which would make England appear to 
 be forcing a constitution upon Portugal. Bound to defend 
 that country if its territory was invaded, he refused to 
 guarantee the succession, or to send troops to interfere in its 
 internal concerns or in the civil war now proceeding. But 
 bodies of men armed, clothed and regimented by Spain now 
 made actual incursions into Portuguese territory. When the 
 Portuguese ministry made her formal demands for assistance 
 against these men, in virtue of the old treaty rights. Canning's 
 opportunity for vindicating the honour of England had come. 
 During his first ministry Canning had, in despatching 
 expeditions to Denmark and Portugal, shown the utmost 
 decision and energy. So it was now to be. " On last Friday," 
 explained Canning to the Commons, "precise 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 both Houses of Parliament — and this day (12th Deer., 1826) 
 — at the hour in which I have the honour of addressing you — 
 the troops are on their march for embarkation. . . . Let us fly 
 to the aid of Portugal, by whomsoever attacked ; because it is 
 our duty to do so ; and let us cease our interference where 
 that duty ends. We go to Portugal, not to rule, not to 
 
The Colonies and the Slave Trade 203 
 
 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 heights of Lisbon. Where that 
 standard is planted foreign dominion shall not come." It 
 was Canning's third master-stroke. The two former had 
 wrenched naval power from the grasp of Napoleon, the third 
 defended a principle and a nation against assault. On the 
 25th December, 4000 English troops sailed up the Tagus 
 whose banks were lined with shouting crowds. The in- 
 surgents and Spanish mercenaries were completely defeated. 
 Canning declared his measure to be one for defence of 
 Portugal not for war against Spain. Ferdinand thoroughly 
 cowed seized eagerly at the excuse, disavowed all knowledge 
 of the operations, allowed Portuguese deserters to be sent 
 back to Lisbon, and recognized the Regency. Without 
 Canning's promptitude war could only have been a question 
 of days, for the Portuguese Government was to the last degree 
 infuriated with Ferdinand's outrageous violations of neutrality. 
 Canning preferred to nip growing hostilities in the ear, rather 
 than let aggressions ripen into maturity, that they might be 
 mowed down by the scythe of a magnificent war. 
 
 Portuguese affairs were far indeed from a state of tranquil- 
 lity. To the last Canning was engaged in their arrangement, 
 and he proposed the eventual settlement by which Miguel 
 married Maria. But for many years the dreary struggle with 
 the Miguelites proceeded, and the people learned but slowly 
 the lessons of constitutional government. But the more 
 general effect was decisive and complete, not only throughout 
 Spain but throughout Europe. Spain was humbled, the Holy 
 Allies cowed, the principles of Legitimacy opposed by arms. 
 Striving to hold the balance high, Canning had shown that 
 he would yet unsheath the sword in defence of the principle 
 of non-intervention — if it was too often and too outrageously 
 violated. In Spain he had not interfered, in Portugal he had 
 shown that he would not hesitate. Old treaty rights indeed 
 claimed his assistance, but he had also shown that the 
 intrigues of the Holy Alliance would turn England from her 
 attitude of absolute neutrality. With every desire to let 
 each country choose its own institutions, he had yet been 
 driven from his neutrality by opposition to the principles of 
 Legitimacy.* "We are anxious beyond measure for the 
 prosperous and unmolested establishment of free institutions 
 
 * Sept. 9. 1826, Canning to A'Court, Portugal F.O. 306. 
 
204 Life of Canning 
 
 in Portugal. We trust they will take root and flourish. 
 They shall not if we can help it be assailed from without . . . 
 that the present system of government in Spain cannot be 
 long maintained against the nearest example of free institu- 
 tions may be true. But the conviction of the probability of 
 this silent moral operation does not justify any attempt to 
 precipitate it, by forcing upon the adoption of one nation the 
 principles or practice of another." Thus he warned Portugal 
 not to undertake a crusade against despotism in Spain, but 
 he had himself been driven to a definite encouragement of 
 Portuguese constitutionalism, which the presence of a British 
 fleet and soldiers assured and maintained. By adopting a 
 qualiiied neutrality and inclining the balance definitely 
 against despotism Canning's influence had greatly increased. 
 The opposition leaders ceased to oppose, and vied with one 
 another in his praise. The Holy Alliance trembled at his 
 name. They shuddered at every speech he made, for they 
 knew his words were as other men's deeds. Metternich 
 called him the " scourge of England, ' and said " he had 
 flashed like a malevolent meteor through Europe." Canning 
 could have desired no better tribute from the Holy Allies. 
 The peoples were everywhere on his side, his speeches were 
 the text-book of all Liberals, his portrait hung in the huts of 
 peasants, England was the land of liberty and of Canning. 
 Wherever there was oppression or misery or injustice men 
 remembered his name, and were filled with hope. To this 
 dazzling height had Canning at length raised his own glory 
 and that of his country. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE FREEDOM OF GREECE 
 [182I-7] 
 
 " After so many centuries of tribulation lo ! the Phoenix of 
 Greece majestically unfolds her wings, and unties under her 
 shadow her genuine and submissive children."" With this 
 proclamation Alexander Ypsilanti invaded Moldavia, and 
 raised the standard of Greek independence in the February of 
 1 82 1. In the time of their strength the Turkish rule had not 
 been unusually oppressive, and there is little doubt that in 
 the seventeenth and even in the early part of the eighteenth 
 century the Christians of Eastern Europe were almost as 
 ready to be ruled by them as by the House of Austria. But 
 the invariable rule of the Porte has been to redress the 
 balance of military defeat by the gain in civic authority, 
 which it proceeds to strengthen and secure by the coercion or 
 massacre of some of its Christian subjects. At the same 
 time that the Turkish government, conscious of its external 
 weakness, was increasing its domestic oppression, its Greek 
 population was reviving the Hellenic tongue and with it the 
 old sense of nationality, the old contempt and hatred of 
 barbarians. The student or the dreamer thought, with idle 
 indignation, how the presence of savage and brutal Mussulmen 
 defiled the marble ruins and profaned the sacred mountains 
 where the bright gods of old had dwelt. The sturdy 
 mountaineers and the rough bands of Klephts or brigands 
 hated the Turks with the undying hatred they extended to 
 all settled forms of government. The wealth and the 
 commerce of Greece had trained a hardy race of sailors and 
 increased the independence and population of the towns. To 
 all these elements of discord were added the ideas of the 
 French Revolution. The presence of France, and afterwards 
 
2o6 Life of Canning 
 
 of England, in the Ionian Isles filled the Greeks with hope 
 and promoted a desire for independence. This was also 
 fanned by the sympathy of their co-religionists in Russia, 
 and of the Czar Alexander, who had at one time posed as the 
 champion of Liberalism and as the friend of Greece. The 
 eloquent Capodistrias, a Greek of the islands, was his minister, 
 and openly avowed his Hellenic sympathies. A secret society 
 — the Hetaeria Philike — was formed to give independence to 
 Greece, and its leaders assured their followers that the 
 Czar was a member and a secret supporter. Ali Pasha — the 
 ambitious ruler of Albania and Epirus — secretly gave them 
 arms, encouragement, and money. Utterly unscrupulous, 
 brave as a hero and cunning as a trickster, Ali is one of the 
 most picturesque ruffians that Turkish or indeed any history 
 can produce. In him met and were blended the extraordinary 
 contrasts and vicissitudes of the East, where one man could 
 thus play the parts both of Robin Hood and Warwick the 
 king-maker. From a herd boy he rose to be a brigand chief, 
 from a captain of outlaws to the most famous general' and 
 most powerful subject of the Sultan. The snows of eighty 
 years had not chilled his ambition, and he aspired to hew out 
 a kingdom from the dying Turkish empire, perhaps even to 
 overthrow the Sultan himself Therefore, while utterly un- 
 lettered, he posed as a patron of the arts, and played Maecenas 
 to the poor literary scholars of Hellenism, and though utterly 
 selfish and ambitious, intrigued with the Hetaerists and pro- 
 fessed a desire to further the independence of Greece. When 
 Ypsilanti's Moldavian revolt ended in utter failure and in the 
 Czar denouncing and disavowing him, the Hetaerists were 
 flung back upon themselves and upon Ali, who now 
 declared war against the Sultan. Theiy were encouraged by 
 the success of his open revolt and the whole of the Morea 
 speedily lit the torch of insurrection. 
 
 Though the Greek rising thus originated so largely in 
 specific and peculiar causes, Castlereagh could write as 
 follows : * " The insurrection throughout European Turkey, 
 in its organization, in its objects, in its agency, and in its 
 external relations is in no respects distinguishable from the 
 mo vements in Spain, Portugal and Italy ; whatever may be 
 the views of the Turkish power it is at least exempt from the 
 revolutionary danger. The cause of the Greeks is deeply 
 and inevitably tainted with it." This extract illustrates the 
 
 •December 14th, 1821. Desp. XII. 444. 
 
The Freedom of Greece 207 
 
 usual lack of insight and imagination Castlereagh's states- 
 manship displayed. He remained neutral, true to the 
 principles of non-intervention adopted in 1820, but directed 
 every effort to maintain the peace between Russia and 
 Turkey. The Porte suspected Alexander of intrigues with 
 the Hetaerists and Ali Pasha. A Turkish mob attacked the 
 Russian Embassy, and the tone of Turkish despatches 
 became intolerably insulting. The Czar withdrew his 
 ambassador and for a time war seemed imminent, and was 
 loudly called for by the people of Russia. But Alexander 
 had repented his former Liberalism in sack-cloth and taken 
 Metternich for his Father-superior. The Austrian diplomat 
 now urged to his convert with irresistible effect that separate 
 action was at variance with the principles of the moral union, 
 and, moreover, that the Turkish was a " legitimate " govern- 
 ment, and therefore the Greeks must not be assisted. His 
 triumph was complete and the calamities of war were for a 
 time averted. Lord Strangford, the English ambassador, 
 undertook the task of reconciling the Porte and the Czar. It 
 will be seen therefore that the one service done by the Holy 
 Alliance was to prevent this war. But it is also perfectly 
 clear that this service to the peace of the world was the 
 individual gain of Austria, which cleverly checked the Russian 
 influence or aggression upon Turkey and left the Greeks to 
 their fate, by invoking the sacred theory of Legitimacy. It 
 was on this suspicion of the individual interests of each nation 
 using the union for its own purposes, that Canning played in 
 order to dissolve the Holy Alliance. 
 
 On July 9th, 1822, Castlereagh wrote to Strangford, " I fear * 
 a negotiation on the frontiers, even if yielded by the Porte, 
 will only entangle the diplomatic discussions, encourage the 
 Greeks to resist (marginal note by Lord Castlereagh in pencil, 
 ' delete this if it should ever be published '), and finally bring 
 us next spring to the probable issue of war." Castlereagh it 
 will be seen was not enthusiastic, and detested and feared the 
 Greek movement. In his Verona memorandum he suggested 
 that every means should be used to soften the warfare be- 
 tween Turks and Greeks, but refused to recognize the latter 
 as belligerents. These instructions Canning supplemented on 
 September 24th, 1822. The amnesty to the Greeks must 
 be of the most liberal and comprehensive kind, and a 
 promise of future good government must be extracted from 
 
 * F.O. Turkey 105. 
 
2o8 Life of Canning 
 
 he Porte* whatever might be our wishes, our prejudices, 
 our sympathies, we are bound in political justice to respect 
 that national independence, which in case of civil commotion 
 we should expect to be respected in our own. Nor was it for 
 a Christian Government, which rules . . . over a population of 
 millions of Mahomedans, to proclaim a war of religion." If 
 Turkey granted our demands and Greece refused them it 
 would be impossible to force them upon her, and we do not 
 know to what concessions they would agree. Interference on 
 behalf of the Greeks is therefore impossible at present, except 
 in the demand for a full amnesty and a promise of'gbod 
 government from the Turks. 
 
 " Coffee, pipes, and preliminary deliberations " was Lord 
 Strangford's summary of his confidential interviews with the 
 Porte. This snail-paced diplomacy of the East did not suit 
 the vigorous Canning. He instructed t Strangford to say 
 that the English Government " must no longer be amused by 
 unmeaning promises ; they appeal to the honour of the 
 Sultan for facts." But the Turkish Government continued a 
 course of petty insult towards Russia culminating in putting 
 restraints in the way of Russian commerce. This was a 
 masterpiece of folly as it enlisted the Russian merchants on 
 the side of war, and Canning lost no time in pointing out 
 that " facts were of much more importance in this case than 
 any reasoning founded on an abstract right of the Porte to give 
 a preference to her own navigation." At the same time that 
 Canning thus impressed the Porte with the practical side of 
 his policy, he displayed the most romantic adherence to 
 truth in diplomacy even in the smallest details. On 
 t September i6th, 1823, Strangford formulated his demands 
 and presented a note to the Sultan, which he said had been 
 drawn up in London. Canning at once remonstrated " not 
 because there is anything in it which your government 
 hesitates to sanction, but simply because such was not the 
 fact." This well illustrates and proves, though proof is 
 needless. Lady Canning's assertion that " it was an invariable 
 
 * F.O. Continent, 46. Canning to Wellington at Verona. 
 
 Observe there is no word here of favour to Turkey because she is not 
 " revolutionary " whereas Greece is. Quite the reverse in fact " whatever 
 our sympathies," etc. This Despatch therefore is something more than 
 supplementary in the ordinary sense. 
 
 t February 14th, 1823, F.O. 113 Turkey. 
 
 t F.O. Turkey 113. The other quotation from Lady Canning's 
 pamphlet on Portugal, p.36. 
 
The Freedom of Greece 209 
 
 principle of his foreign policy to act with good faith whatever 
 might be the consequence." 
 
 The progress of the Greek Revolution had, despite some 
 reverses, been rapid and successful. Ali Pasha, after success- 
 fully defying the whole forces of the Ottoman Empire, had at 
 length been vanquished and slain. The peaceful island of 
 Chios had been wantonly attacked by the Turks and 30,000 
 of its inhabitants slaughtered or sold into slavery. But this 
 brutal massacre was speedly avenged, for Constantine 
 Kanares blew up two of the chief Turkish men-of-war with 
 fWfeships and so terrified the rest of the fleet, that they fled for 
 refuge beneath the guns of the Golden Horn. On land the 
 Greeks were equally successful in 182 1-2, in spite of the fact 
 that the Turkish forces acting against Ali were now released. 
 A Turkish army of 30,000 men invaded the Morea and all 
 resistance seemed over. But by the undaunted courage and 
 irregular genius of Kolokotrones, a rude brigand-chief, this vast 
 force was not only defeated but almost annihilated. At the 
 sametime another Turkisharmy wasrepulsed fromMissolonghi, 
 and scattered bands of mountaineers everywhere inflicted 
 great losses, whilst the bold sailors of Hydra and Spezia 
 almost destroyed the Turkish commerce. Greece seemed 
 near the de facto stage of independence and the Sultan, 
 driven to desperation, sought aid from his powerful satrap 
 Mehemet Ali, the Khedive of Egypt. The Greek successes 
 had aroused extraordinary enthusiasm throughout Europe. 
 The classic land of Liberty had at length begun to revive its 
 departed fame. Lord Byron sang in passionate strains of 
 the glories of the past and the slavery of the present, and 
 sacrificed his fortune and his life to the cause. Lord 
 Frederic North gave a perverted example of the same ardour 
 by twisting a gold band in his hair, assuming a purple robe, 
 and walking about the Morea calling on the Greeks to 
 recognize him as Plato ! English subscriptions poured into 
 the Greek war-chest, English volunteers enlisted in the army. 
 Everywhere sentimentalists gushed and classical scholars 
 wept to think of the return of Liberty to its ancient birthplace. 
 
 The realities of the revolution had they been known were 
 calculated to chill the enthusiasms of all but the most 
 sanguine. Every great moment or upheaval will bring to its 
 surface leaders of two kinds. There will be sentimental 
 visionary and high-principled fanatics, like Robespierre or 
 Vergniaud, who conceal their absence of practical knowledge 
 and their lack of business ability beneath a flood of eloquence 
 
2IO Life of Canning 
 
 and emotion. There will also be ruthless and too practical 
 adventurers, men like Kolokotrones or Bolivar, who veil their 
 own selfish and interested designs beneath professions of the 
 noblest sentiments. Revolutions can seldom have lasting 
 success, unless the principles of the one class are united to the 
 courage and ability of the other, as in such men as Deak or 
 Washington. But the Greek revolution exhibited both types 
 in the highest separate perfection, the visionaries more than 
 usually divorced from fact, the men of action more than 
 usually attached to the spoils and the plunder. As a con- 
 sequence dissension corruption, and selfishness abounded. 
 Civil war burst forth and Kolokotrones, who had never been 
 vanquished by the Turks, was overcome and imprisoned by 
 his countrymen. On all these proceedings Canning was 
 forced to look with the critical eye of the statesman. His 
 private sympathies had been expressed in an early poem on 
 the " Slavery of Greece," published in the Microcosm. 
 
 ' Such was thy State, but oh ! how changed thy fame. 
 And all thy glories fading into shame. 
 What ! that they hold thy freedom-breathing land 
 Should crouch beneath a tyrant's stern command ! 
 That servitude should bind in galling chain 
 Whom Asia's millions once opposed in vain. 
 . . . The glittering tyranny of Othman's sons, 
 The pomp of horror which surrounds their thrones, 
 Has awed their servile spirits into fear. 
 Spumed by the foot they tremble and revere.' 
 
 There is no reason to suppose that these feelings had changed 
 But the statesman cannot think as the private individual, for 
 the one necessarily curtails his enthusiasm within the bounds 
 of his responsibilities, the other as naturally expands it beyond 
 the limits of the practical. " There is no denying," said 
 Stratford Canning, though an ardent sympathiser, " that with 
 few exceptions the Greeks are a most rascally set." England 
 had found it impossible, because of their disunion and corrup- 
 tion, to grant self-government to the Ionian Islanders, whom 
 Sir Thomas Maitland (" King Tom of Corfu ") ruled with an 
 iron hand. This example must have been before George 
 Canning, who knew too much of history to believe that men 
 oppressed with centuries of tyranny, servitude, and misrule 
 could immediately learn the art of government and the 
 practice of virtue. He laughed at the pretensions of 
 " Epaminondas and Co.," being the last to think that men 
 called Leonidas Aristides and Odysseus would mechanically 
 assume the virtues of their names. The first condition of 
 
The Freedom of Greece 2 1 1 
 
 recognizing their independence was that they should show 
 stabiHty of government, and this they could not as yet offer. 
 But however cautious and critical he might be, Canning had 
 yet shown undisguised sympathy for the insurgents, and had 
 recognized them as belligerents which the other Powers had 
 refused to do. 
 
 The first project of intervention came as usual from 
 Alexander. He circulated a note on January 12th, 1824, 
 proposing that the Powers should unite in a congress to en- 
 force on the Porte the acceptance of a scheme which would 
 turn Greece into three Principalities — all autonomous and 
 all governed in the name of the Sultan. The Czar had already 
 established a sort of protectorate over Moldavia and Wallachia 
 and this proposal would have done the same for all Greece. 
 This suggestion really deceived no one as it was purely drawn 
 in the interests of Russia. Canning alone among British 
 statesmen had grasped the strategic importance of the mastery 
 of the Mediterranean. He had denounced the peace of 
 Amiens because by surrendering Malta it abandoned that 
 control. Now that England also ruled the Ionian Isles he 
 was not likely to give Russia a qualified right of interference 
 in all Turkish and Greek affairs, knowing as he did how 
 Castlereagh had discovered and repelled Russian intrigues 
 against " King Tom " and his Ionian dependencies. But 
 Canning might possibly have overcome his vehement objections 
 to Congresses and trusted to re-establish English influence at 
 them, if either of the belligerents had favoured the proposals. 
 This would have saved his favourite principle of non-interven- 
 tion. But the Turks protested vehemently, and in August, 
 1824, a Greek deputation waited on Canning to denounce the 
 Czar's proposals as cruel and oppressive, and the intervention 
 of the Powers as uninvited and tyrannical. Canning an- 
 nounced that England could be no party to the con- 
 ference, and declared that England would agree to no pro- 
 posals to which the Greeks did not themselves consent. 
 
 Stratford Canning, cousin of the Foreign Secretary, had 
 been appointed special plenipotentiary to St. Petersburg. He 
 owed his diplomatic success largely to the influence of his 
 kinsman by whose ideas he was greatly impressed. Stratford, 
 though appointed before Canning's refusal to accede to the 
 conference, was ordered still to proceed to Russia. Two 
 conditions were laid down as essential to England's consent 
 to a Congress. The first was the complete resumption of 
 diplomatic intercourse between the Czar and the Porte by the 
 
212 Life of Canning 
 
 return of Ribeaupierre the Russian ambassador, the second a 
 " previous and public disavowal of force," by all the Powers. 
 These conditions effectually prevented either Russian aggran- 
 disement or a Legitimist Crusade, and thus once again 
 Canning had baffled the Holy Alliance. On his way to 
 Russia Stratford passed through Vienna, and his private 
 letters to his cousin give a humorous and vivid picture of 
 the old diplomacy. Metternich * " assured me in candour 
 that he did not consider you a very extravagant example of 
 Liberalism but only slightly dangerous as encouraging, with- 
 out meaning it, characters less favourable to order than your- 
 self." He spoke with regret of the old times — of the com- 
 fort, convenience, and efficacy of settling matters of state by 
 conversation at a round table — falsely termed a conference — 
 and by the meeting of two prime ministers belonging to 
 countries essentially pacific and identified in their leading 
 interests like Austria and England. In a word I conceive 
 that he would be delighted to have you enter into the same sort 
 of understanding with him that your predecessor did ; but I am 
 much mistaken if he be not prepared to do you all the mischief 
 in his power — whatever that may be — as soon as he loses 
 all hope of making a tolerable colleague of you." Thus even 
 at the end of 1824 the fruits of Castlereagh's unwise policy and 
 apparent insincerity remained. Stratford found it needful 
 to enlighten not only Metternich but Sir Henry Wellesley, 
 and assure them that his kinsman was acting not under 
 parliamentary pressure but on his own convictions, by 
 " manifesting sympathy and something more with the late 
 liberal movements." Metternich was very soon to be convinced 
 by the Recognition of the New World that Stratford had not 
 erred. Henceforward he was invariably opposed to Canning, 
 whose knowledge of Metternich's intrigues with George the 
 Fourth and Countess Lieven for his dismissal, united a personal 
 enmity to a political rivalry. " I believe him (Metternich) 
 to be the greatest rogue and liar on the Continent, perhaps 
 . in t he civilized world," wrote Canning to Granville. 
 
 At St. Petersburg Stratford found Alexander and Nesselrode 
 almost in tears at the heartless conduct of Canning in break- 
 ing off from the Congress, after he had at first shown some 
 favour towards it. They began by refusing to discuss the 
 
 * Poole. Life of Stratford Canning. I. 352. and, infra p. 349, to 
 avoid confusion I refer throughout this chapter to the Ambassador as 
 ' Stratford' and the Foreign Secretary as ' Canning.' 
 
The Freedom of Greece 213 
 
 Greek question, so Stratford re-opened that of the Czar's 
 Ukase about the Western waters and coast of America, and 
 obtained substantial satisfaction for England. Before leaving 
 however he exchanged full views with Nesselrode on Greek 
 affairs. Though no agreement was arrived at, Stratford had 
 done much to produce harmony and allay irritation. He 
 returned to England to be appointed Ambassador to 
 Constantinople, where he came to be known as " the great 
 Elchi." Indeed though England lays on him the heavy 
 burden of the Crimean war he was one of the ablest of our 
 diplomatists. As " the voice of England in the East " he was 
 the only one of our ambassadors, whose influence has been 
 great continuous and effective at Constantinople. The in- 
 structions delivered to Stratford on * October 13th, 1825, mark 
 a further advance in Canning's ideas. "No hope was enter- 
 tained of the conference plan — of a co-operation, of which 
 (as appeared to the British Government) those who under- 
 took it had neither defined the limits or adjusted the principles, 
 nor taken into consideration the consequences which were 
 likely to result from its failure." Stratford is therefore to keep 
 England isolated and separate. He is to defend the action 
 of England in recognizing the Greeks as belligerents on the 
 ground that " the character of belligerency is not so much a 
 principle as a fact — a certain degree of force and consistency 
 acquired by any mass of population engaged in war, entitled 
 that population to be treated as a belligerent." He also 
 indignantly repelled the assumption that "in a quarrel between 
 a sovereign and a portion of his subjects, all foreign Govern- 
 ments are bound by an over-ruling obligation to make 
 common cause with the sovereign." He warns the Turk 
 against insulting too grossly the moral opinion of the world, 
 and mindful of his own special creation, says " the Porte 
 cannot doubt that all the inhabitants of both Americas to a 
 man, are in their hearts favourers of the Greek cause, and 
 might at no distant period become active co-operators in it. 
 This is not the language of intimidation, it is that of truth." 
 He adds that England will endeavour to dissuade Russia or 
 any Power from making war. The pacification of Greece is 
 recommended to the Divan, which is informed that "to 
 suppose Greece can ever be brought back to what she was in 
 relation to the Porte is vain." He adds that England is 
 willing to find out to what terms the Greeks would consent. 
 Canning seems at this moment to have advocated a qualified 
 
 * Turkey F.O. 133. 
 
2 14 Life of Canning 
 
 independence, which included an amnesty of the most liberal 
 and generous kind and a larger measure of local autonomy. 
 The Four Powers had just solemnly presented the demands 
 of their Conference to the Porte. It had rejected them with 
 scorn and contempt, whilst the Greeks feared the Holy Allies 
 as much as the Turks. That they now looked to England 
 alone for sympathy and aid is shown by their Official Gazette 
 (September 30th, 1825). "We always had and still have 
 anxious hopes that Great Britain will protect and perhaps 
 already is protecting our rights, not by means of her arms 
 but by means of her strong influence and her upright, wise, 
 and liberal policy." 
 
 The sole object of Metternich at these conferences had 
 been to gain time, to check Russia, to divide, weaken, and 
 restrain the Greeks, and thus enable the Turkish Government 
 to restore its authority and uphold the principles of Legitimacy. 
 "The facility — almost dupery — of Alexander" was common 
 talk during Metternich's visit to Paris early in 1825. It at 
 length reached Alexander himself, who in August announced 
 that Russia would act independently, and yet regarding 
 himself as the sword of the Holy Alliance, "in a spirit 
 of gloomy abstraction resolved upon immediate war." 
 During an ominous journey of his to the Black Sea the world 
 waited every day for a declaration of war, but was even more 
 startled to learn that it was averted and that the Czar was 
 dead. Harassed in Russia by conspiracies and intrigues, 
 foiled alike by Metternich and Canning, the wearied and 
 overworn Alexander must have welcomed death as a release 
 from his sorrows. Canning at once read the changed pro- 
 duced in the European situation, as clearly as he analysed the 
 character of this brilliant sentimentalist. " One element of 
 discord," wrote he* on January 9th, 1826, "is removed by the 
 removal of the principle of the Holy Alliance from the 
 question of intervention. Alexander's reasoning and, what 
 was more effective, his feeling was " Why not trust me to 
 settle Greece, as I trusted you, Austria, with Naples, and you, 
 France, with Spain?" This feeling, however disguised, or 
 (when it was intended to cajole us) suppressed, was at the 
 bottom of all Alexander's complaints and remonstrances, and 
 I am persuaded that though there were moments of 
 enthusiasm, and paroxysms of ambition, the fixed purpose of 
 his mind was not so much to liberate Greece, as to do that 
 
 * Poole. Life, Stratford Canning. I. 394. 
 
The Freedom of Greece 215 
 
 work as the blessed instrument of the Holy Alliance." The 
 policy of the new ruler, Canning saw, would be Russian 
 rather than cosmopolitan, and hence could be used as an 
 instrument to break up the moral union and the Holy 
 Alliance. The whole tenor of his policy was therefore, as we 
 have seen, to keep England absolutely isolated and inde- 
 pendent. Yet in December, 1825, he learnt that Lord 
 Strangford had been recommending to Nesselrode a collective 
 menace of all the powers to Turkey. This was more than he 
 could endure. He wrote Lord* Strangford the severest of 
 despatches reproaching him with having done the utmost 
 mischief and " having cut the ground from under Mr Strat- 
 ford Canning's feet " by going directly against the policy of 
 his Government. He concluded with what he called a " pad- 
 lock." "The instructions which I have now to give your 
 Excellency are comprised in a few short words, to be quiet." 
 The new policy was one of vigour, boldness, and resolution, 
 and the inability of the old school of diplomatists — Henry 
 Wellesley, Londonderry, Strangford, Sir Charles Stuart, and 
 Wellington — to understand or to execute it marks the real 
 and vital difference between Canning and Castlereagh. 
 
 Meanwhile time and events had again worked a change in the 
 situation of Greece. Ibrahim, the Egyptian Commander, had 
 vanquished the Greeks and overrun the Morea and- the main- 
 land with his wild Arabs and Soudanese. The balance of 
 cruelty had hitherto weighed but slightly against the Greeks. 
 Against the massacre of Chios could be set the cold-blooded 
 butchery of Tripolitza, though the numbers there slaughtered 
 were immensely less. If to the Seraglio-gate at- Constanti- 
 nople were nailed hundreds of pairs of human ears, Omar 
 Vrione during his advance into Greece had marched between 
 rows of gibbets or crosses, on which hung or writhed terribly 
 mutilated Turkish bodies. But Ibrahim and his men con- 
 trived to improve even upon these methods, and the war in 
 the Morea assumedf "a character of barbarism and bar- 
 barization." " The selling into slavery, the forced conversions 
 — the dispeopling of Christendom — the recruiting from the 
 countries of Islamism — the erection, in short, of a new puiss- 
 
 " Now Ambassador at St. Petersburg. Gentz wrote in baffled fury III. 
 70. " Des phrases telles que " la voix reunie des cinq cours alli^es ne 
 s'^taient pas rencontres depuis longtemps dans le dictionnaire diplom- 
 atique de M. Canning. 
 
 Tgth January, 1826. George Canning to Stratford. Poole I, 395. 
 
2i6 Life of Canning 
 
 ance Barbaresque in Europe," constituted higher grounds of 
 interference than any which Canning had previously urged. 
 Stratford declared the plan of Ibrahim to be "to drive as it 
 were the whole Greek population to the Morea, to transport 
 them into slavery in Africa, and to repeople the country so 
 depopulated with a Mahomedan population." This monstrous 
 and extravagant plan of warfare Canning held Christian 
 nations and the public opinion of England could not tolerate, 
 even if it did not prove an enormous moral incentive to 
 Russia to act alone. There is evidence that, had Canning 
 known definitely beforehand of the project of the Turks to 
 seek aid from Egypt, he would have interposed with the 
 British fleet. At any rate he now resolved to act with 
 vigour, and on February 8th, 1826, the Lords of the Admir- 
 alty were directed to send an officer to Ibrahim, to demand 
 an explicit disavowal or a formal renunciation of this project. 
 This was immediately obtained, Ibrahim absolutely denying 
 the truth of the rumour. On the 19th April, the Greek 
 States General formally solicited the good offices of England, 
 who was henceforth not only the sole but the authorised 
 pleader of Greece. 
 
 The despatch of an extraordinary ambassador, to con- 
 gratulate the Czar Nicholas on his accession, was Canning's 
 opportunity to reopen negotiations with Russia. Welling- 
 ton was selected, and received the* following instructions. 
 Russia was weary of Metternich's delusive and worn-out 
 policy, and to suspend an appeal to arms Wellington was to 
 offer England's single intervention, between Russia and the 
 Porte on the one hand, and the Porte and the Greeks on the 
 other. He was to discourage all idea of the renewal of the 
 Conferences, which only Prussia now advocated. " Nothing 
 can exceed the soreness of other Powers, of the Netherlands 
 in particular, at the association of Prussia in an alliance, 
 assuming the general direction of Europe, more especially 
 since a question between Prussia and the Netherlands was 
 decided at Verona against the latter, the Netherlands not 
 being summoned to state their case, and Prussia sitting as a 
 judge in a cause in which she was a party." To multiply 
 conditions was, in Canning's view, the best way to avoid the 
 " fruitless and perplexing process of a conference." Besides 
 the conditions already stated to Stratford, the establishment 
 
 * February loth, 1826. Russia F.O., 153. The substance of the Greek 
 overture, though not presented till April 19th, had been secretly communi- 
 cated by Stratford in time to influence these instructions. 
 
The Freedom of Greece 217 
 
 of the Russian mission and abjuration of force, Canning now 
 insisted on the abjuration by all Powers of views of aggrand- 
 izement or special advantage, the admission of the King of 
 the Netherlands to the Congress, and London as the seat of 
 the Conference. Even then he thought it utterly hopeless 
 that a congress could settle terms. Every effort must how- 
 ever be made, to check Russia from going to war or acting 
 alone, and to force Ibrahim to renounce his inhuman projects. 
 On April 4th, Wellington signed a secret Protocol with 
 Nesselrode, which secured that England should mediate on 
 the lines laid down in the Instruction. Greece was to 
 remain tributary to the Sultan, but to be granted complete 
 self-government and power to regulate its own trade. The 
 Turkish population was to be transported from Greece " bag 
 and baggage." The barbarities of Ibrahim and the direct 
 appeals of the Greeks to Canning were the chief causes which 
 had induced him thus to take his first step towards securing 
 the independence of Greece. 
 
 So far Wellington had performed his task well. But his 
 extraordinary neglect of the lesser arts of statesmanship and 
 lack of diplomatic insight or subtlety was seen in his sub- 
 sequent actions. He was completely deceived by the pacific 
 professions of the Czar, and wrote to Stratford telling him to 
 deliver an enclosed letter to the Reis Effendi (or Turkish 
 Foreign Secretary). This " lecture " briefly informed the 
 Reis that as Turkey had nothing to fear from Russia in the 
 way of war, it would therefore see the propriety of yielding 
 to England's intervention. This statement was not true — for 
 the Czar still meditated war, but even if it had been, this 
 hasty and unauthorized British communication from St. 
 Petersburg would have been extraordinarily undiplomatic, 
 and encouraged the Turks to resist our demands. Stratford 
 very properly withheld most of the lecture, as he called it, and 
 his decision was confirmed by Canning. The single-handed 
 intervention of England was pressed upon the Porte with vigour 
 by Stratford,but it had been definitely rejected before May, 1826, 
 when the news of the Protocol came. This was partly owing to 
 the selfish and interested intrigues of Metternich, who left no 
 device untried to bring about its failure, and to discredit 
 England in the eyes of the Porte. But Metternich was 
 thunderstruck to receive intelligence of the Protocol of April 
 4th. At the very moment that he hoped that his * mean and 
 
 * That these epithets are on the side of moderation can be gathered 
 from Poole, I, 410-16. Canning's letter quoted below is on p. 431. 
 
 14 
 
2i8 Life of Canning 
 
 shameful intrigues had defeated Canning, he discovered that 
 Russia was pledged to a joint mediation with England. 
 Russia was indeed bound to England and prevented from 
 aggrandizement, but at the same time all hope of the triumph 
 of Legitimacy was over. Metternich thought the advantage 
 of thus hampering Russia considerable and yielded a fulsome 
 but in reality most reluctant assent to the Protocol. After 
 receiving it Canning wrote jubilantly to Stratford, September 
 Sth, 1826, " Every engine short of war (which no Minister of 
 England in his senses would dream of incurring in these 
 times out of reverence to Aristides or St. Paul) is to be 
 applied to beat down Turkish obstinacy. . . . You have no 
 reason to dread being shackled in your march by the Holy 
 Alliance. They no longer march en corps. I have resolved 
 them into individuality and having done so, I employ the 
 disjecta membra each in its respective place and for its 
 respective use without scruple or hesitation. There were two 
 problems to be solved in this matter — one to give to you the 
 assistance of all the Allies without restraining your freedom 
 of action : the other to obtain all the advantages of a cor- 
 porate movement upon the Porte, without admitting in 
 principle to the Allies a corporate authority or risking any 
 disparagement in the eyes of the Porte from a possible 
 partial defection. I flatter myself both these problems are 
 solved. ... As to Austria in particular, how I envy you the 
 pleasure of reading to the worthy Internuncio . . . the re- 
 spectful and laudatory citation of the sentiments of his Court, 
 touching the recognition of the revolted provinces ! Vivent 
 les conferences which produce such doctrines — at which the 
 real feelings of Austrian diplomacy are elicited by discussion 
 among friends ! . . . You see I am obliged to prune his 
 Highness' extravagances, and to remind him that we cannot 
 recognize so briskly and unconditionally as he is disposed to 
 recommend. No, no, we go soberly and gradually and dis- 
 creetly to work — no German alacrity, no Austrian precipi- 
 tancy for us ! " Certainly Canning must have felt delicious 
 pleasure in thus causing Metternich to swallow with smiling 
 face his unpalatable black draught. 
 
 During September, 1826, Canning was in Paris, where he so 
 completely won over Charles the Tenth to his cause that the 
 French King promised to send a French squadron, to co- 
 operate if need be, and to place a British Admiral in com- 
 mand ! Canning had hoped to avoid the use of force and of 
 severe threats to the Porte, but he gradually began to 
 
The Freedom of Greece 219 
 
 recognize that the Turks only understood violence. The 
 Greeks fared worse and worse at the hands of Ibrahim, and 
 Canning was at length convinced by the remonstrances of 
 Stratford that a rapid and forcible intervention alone could 
 save their cause. It was contrary indeed to his principles 
 of neutrality, but they at length gave way before his 
 humanity. He resolved to accept the offer of King Charles, 
 but the coyness of France, the domestic complica- 
 tions of March and April and Canning's own miserable health 
 caused delay. On* July 6th, 1827, England, France and 
 Russia solemnly signed a Treaty pledging themselves to 
 carry out the Protocol of April 24th 1826. The terms 
 included the merely nominal subjection of Greece to the 
 suzerainty of the Porte, the " bag and baggage " expulsion of 
 Turks, and a solemn disclaimer by the three Powers of all 
 intentions of seeking exclusive commercial privileges or 
 political aggrandizement. Canning had played his part with 
 extraordinary skill. France lately so hostile, with that 
 generous policy which has so often distinguished her, allied 
 herself whole-heartedly with England. Austria and Prussia 
 were humiliated and ineffectual, Russia was tied fast and 
 prevented from any ambitious project. The great objects of 
 Canning had been to prevent Russia from separate action or 
 from declaring war, and to end the barbarities of the struggle 
 and the useless sufferings of the Greeks. This he had now 
 effected by assuring the freedom of Greece, which was to 
 " receive security and repose through the medium of a qualified 
 political existence." No mistake can be greater than to 
 imagine that Canning risked a general dismemberment of 
 Turkey. In reality he preserved the integrity of the Ottoman 
 Empire, for by assuring to the Greeks practical independence 
 he stripped Russia of all possible pretexts for aggression or 
 war. But the treaty of July differed from the Protocol, in that 
 more rigorous measures were proposed for compelling the 
 attention of the Porte. An armistice was to be proclaimed, 
 both belligerents were to cease fighting, and no further re- 
 inforcements were to be sent into Greece, which was to be 
 
 * Canning was now Prime Minister and Lord Dudley Foreign Secretary, 
 but the Treaty vvas negotiated almost wholly by the former, whose 
 influence remained paramount. Canning's letter to Stratford (Turkey, 
 F.O. 151, Feb. 19, 1827) shows the main ideas of the Treaty, v. also 
 Wellin. Civ. Desp. VII. p. lao. Even before this Canning had declared 
 he would call Greece into existence, and accredit consuls to her, 
 Stapleton E. J. Correspce. II. 243. 
 
2 30 Life of Canning 
 
 evacuated by the Turks. Interference " not designed to be 
 hostile " was to enforce these demands on the Porte, by a 
 friendly demonstration of force. Orders were sent to the 
 Mediterranean squadrons of the three Powers to combine and 
 act under Admiral Codrington for this purpose. The 
 Greeks were almost in the death-agony. Heavy re- 
 inforcements were just arriving from Egypt, and a naval 
 expedition from Navarino was preparing to attack Hydra, 
 which, if it had sailed, would probably have ended the Greek 
 revolution at a blow. The Greeks accepted but the Turks 
 refused the armistice, and after several abortive negotiations 
 Ibrahim contemptuoiisly retired into the interior of Morea, 
 which he proceeded to devastate and burn. The only 
 resource left to the Allied Fleet was a demonstration in force 
 at Navarino. This bay was already memorable for a great 
 Spartan disaster in the Peloponnesian War, but few Greeks 
 could have dreamed of the new glory so soon coming to it. 
 On October 20th the Allied squadrons, led by the fiery 
 Codrington, entered the harbour, and a dispute between 
 boats' crews brought on a general battle. The Turkish and 
 Egyptian fleets were dashed in pieces, shattered wrecks and 
 floating bodies strewed the now twice-famous bay, and the 
 thunder of Codrington's guns proclaimed the Freedom of 
 Greece. 
 
 Before the great work for which he had laboured was ac- 
 complished, Canning had sunk beneath the burden of disease 
 and care. Some have held that Canning himself never 
 thought of the application of armed force, because of the 
 diplomatically smooth phrases of the treaty. Nothing can be 
 more untrue, for he distinctly contemplated the use of armed 
 force, to " prevent, in so far as might be in their power, all 
 collision between the contending parties." The prevention 
 was to be enforced by cutting off" from the Turks all supplies 
 and reinforcements. Stratford's* instructions to Codrington 
 September, ist 1827, were: — "On the subject of collision. . . 
 Though it is the intention of the Allied Governments to 
 avoid, if possible, anything that may bring on war, yet the 
 prevention of supplies ... is ultimately to be enforced, if 
 necessary, and when all other means are exhausted, by 
 cannon-shot." This was in fact the real difference between 
 the Protocol and the Treaty. The former Wellington 
 accepted, to the latter he was bitterly opposed. He declared 
 
 * Poole, Life I. 449. It is a fable that the Duke of Clarence, then Lord 
 High Admiral, sent instructions to Codrington, as follows ; " Go it, Ned ! " 
 
The Freedom of Greece 221 
 
 that Canning had negotiated it without the knowledge of 
 anyone but his ducal self. He complained that the Treaty 
 went much further than the Protocol, because it* "specified 
 measures of compulsion neither more nor less than actual 
 measures of war." After this no possible doubt can remain. 
 Canning hoped to accomplish his object by menace, but he 
 never used " that engine " unless he " intended to execute it," 
 and cannon-shot would have made clear the reality of his 
 threats. Also it was proved that with favourable circum- 
 stances menace alone would have been sufficient, for in 
 September Codrington nearly accomplished his task without 
 bloodshed. He caught the Turkish squadron with Ibrahim 
 on board sailing towards Patras. Had the French and 
 Russian squadrons been present he could have forced Ibrahim 
 to return to Egypt. As it was his ships were too few and he 
 could only turn Ibrahim back to Navarino by threatening to 
 sink his fleet. Even though this occurred after Canning's 
 death the ministry do not seem to have censured the pro- 
 ceeding. Canning's policy was exactly similar to his action 
 in Portugal in December, 1826. He had then sent troops who 
 attacked and defeated Spanish soldiers. He was well aware 
 of the possible sequel to the action, but this prompt measure 
 averted war with Spain. So even now he would, in the last 
 resort (and this is no paradox) use cannon-shot to avoid 
 war. 
 
 But apart altogether from this question, which really admits 
 of no doubt, it is legitimate to ask what Canning's action 
 would have been subsequent to Navarino? The mischief 
 once done, instant and effective action was needful. Canning 
 was famed for his swift decision at moments of crisis, as 
 Lisbon and Copenhagen testified. The war with Russia he 
 had averted from Turkey was now almost inevitable, but for 
 some bold stroke on the part of England. Stratford, whose 
 thoughts were usually those of Canning, recommended the 
 immediate despatch of the fleet to the Dardanelles. Guns 
 have always been the best diplomats foreign powers could 
 send to the Porte, and we may suppose that Canning would 
 have taken this course. He would certainly have shrunk from 
 no risk or action which would have kept Russia at peace. 
 Anything more weak and ineffective than the policy actually 
 pursued can hardly be imagined. We tendered apologies, 
 withdrew our fleet, and described Navarino as an " untoward 
 
 *Well. Civ. Desp. N.S. IV. 137, 221. 
 
22 2 Life of Canning 
 
 event." The language used by Wellington, in the Lords, 
 * January 30, 1828, seemed a deliberate encouragement to the 
 Turks to depend upon us and to defy Russia. The result was 
 that the Czar declared war and reaped private and special 
 gains from his separate action. Meanwhile France had the 
 glory of freeing the Morea from Ibrahim by landing a 
 military force. Wellington had declared the intention of 
 England to preserve Turkey as an intact and powerful State, 
 and yet he eventually consented to the avowed independence 
 of Greece and to a much larger extension of territory than 
 Canning himself had designed ! We surrendered in fact 
 every principle to which Wellington himself had clung, losing 
 at the same time every advantage gained by Canning's plan 
 of concerted action, so that we became merely impotent and 
 contemptible. The truth is Canning, deeply sympathising 
 with the Greeks yet resolved to check Russia, had hurried and 
 forced his colleagues into the Treaty against their will. 
 Goderich, his successor in the Premiership, was feeble and 
 vacillating, Wellington and Aberdeen had never pretended to 
 approve this later policy. The result was the utter decline of 
 British influence at Constantinople and a vast increase in that 
 of Russia, whilst the Greeks bitterly complained that they 
 had been betrayed, and mourned the memory of their departed 
 champion. 
 
 The only criticism of Canning's action in the East which 
 could be made is that he was if anything too unwilling to 
 intervene. This reluctance is partly explained by the bitter 
 opposition of his colleagues, partly by his steadfast adherence 
 to his principle of non-interference. He had always seen 
 that the Greek rising against Turkey was totally different 
 from the Liberal movements of South Europe, but he wished 
 if possible to treat Turkey as a civilised State, till time showed 
 she was not amenable to the ordinary methods of diplomacy. 
 Till then, though he showed an open and candid sympathy 
 with the Greek cause, he yet preserved a complete neutrality 
 of action. Had he not prevented the Congress it is almost 
 certain Metternich would have protracted it till the Greeks 
 were subdued. The means by which Canning split up the 
 Holy Alliance and yet brought France to his aid show the 
 highest diplomatic skill, and the freedom of Greece is the 
 monument and the trophy of his fame. The Porte always 
 
 * Wellington was now Premier and his utterance was more unfortunate, 
 as the withdrawal of our ambassador from Constantinople left no means 
 of explaining it — to the Porte. 
 
The Freedom of Greece 223 
 
 maintained " the two Cannings " to be the source and main- 
 spring of Greek liberty. Canning was the first to dream of 
 setting up a State in theory dependent upon Turkey, and in 
 fact not under the protection of Russia. His treatment of the 
 Eastern Question remains classical, and combines the best 
 points of the policy of Disraeli and Gladstone. Resolved to 
 prevent the aggrandizement of Russia he acted in concert 
 with her, — a policy as daring yet wiser and more practical 
 than Disraeli's policy of opposition. Determined if possible 
 to maintain the Ottoman Empire he was yet resolved to 
 secure good government to its subjects, as he shoA^ed by 
 granting * independence in all but name to the Greeks. He 
 did not content himself with vague and thunderous denuncia- 
 tion, but by his adroit measures enforced that respect and 
 concession which the Porte never denies to an effective union 
 of armed powers. His treatment of Greece foreshadows 
 alike the local autonomy and the complete independence, 
 which the Powers have from time to time seen fit to grant to 
 the revolted provinces of Turkey. The principles of his 
 policy are as true and clear and valuable to-day as when they 
 were formulated, however his immediate or later successors 
 have forgotten or abandoned them. In philosophy research 
 usually ends with the cry " Back to Aristotle," and there will 
 be a beginning to our Eastern policy when our statesman 
 shall exclaim " Back to Canning ! " 
 
 * Had he lived a few years longer he would probably have recognized 
 a complete independence. Political followed commercial recognition in 
 the New World in eighteen months. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE PREMIERSHIP AND THE END 
 {February to August i8tk, 1827.) 
 
 The history of Canning's premiership is rather that of the 
 formation of a cabinet than of the work of a ministry. A 
 review of the events leading up to it will explain the position. 
 On January sth, 1827, died the Duke of York, after Eldon 
 the most steadfast of Anti-Catholic leaders. As the Cabinet 
 ministers waited two hours in St. George's Chapel for the 
 funeral Canning, with his usual thought for others, induced 
 Eldon to stand on his hat to avoid the cold of the flagstones. 
 This incident induced *Tom Moore to write one of his 
 admirable witticisms. But in truth the banter was tragic in 
 its way, for it was literally true. The great opponent of 
 Emancipation escaped harm, its great champion caught a 
 chill from which he never recovered. Canning was so ill 
 from the end of January onwards that he could do little or no 
 business, and only rose from his sick-bed on March Sth, to 
 make one of the most brilliant of all his speeches (unhappily 
 not well reported) in favour of Catholic Emancipation. 
 Unfortunately the motion failed by four votes to pass the 
 Commons, and for the session the Emancipators resigned 
 their hopes. On March 6th a yet more important bill 
 passed the Commons, that on Corn-importation. At this time 
 the corn laws placed an extraordinarily high duty against 
 foreign wheat, with the view of encouraging home agriculture. 
 
 * You too, ye Britons, had this hope 
 Of Church and State been vanished from ye. 
 Just think how Canning and the Pope 
 Would then have played up Hell and Tommy. 
 At sea there's but a plank, they say, 
 'Twixt sailors and annihilation. 
 A hat that awful moment lay 
 'Twixt Ireland and Emancipation. 
 
The Struggle for the Premiership 225 
 
 The terrible distress of 1825-6, the depression of trade, and 
 the very bad harvest necessitated measures of relief which 
 Liverpool, Canning and Huskisson arranged. The foreign 
 corn bonded in warehouses, waiting till prices should rise to 
 the level at which importation was allowed, was at once 
 released, and the Government also imported 500,000 quarters 
 more with the view of reducing the distress. As the high 
 duty was nothing more nor less than an immense grant to the 
 landlords, it can hardly be wondered that the great body of 
 the " booby squires " and " Tory High Fliers," as Creevey 
 called them, objected and furiously denounced Huskisson and 
 Canning. These two, however, were undaunted, and, though 
 both were very ill, arranged a joint-measure known as the 
 Corn Law Relief Bill, which they introduced into the 
 Commons on March 6th, 1827. Canning had with his usual 
 ability perceived the tendency of the time. " We are on the 
 brink," * said he, " of a great struggle between property and 
 population, such a struggle is only to be averted by the 
 mildest and most liberal legislation." He saw perfectly well 
 that the manufacturing classes and the people were 
 impatient of these doles to the landlords, that to persist in 
 them might prove a national danger. He designed as 
 usual a policy of moderation, of holding the balance 
 between the land and the factory. How wise and far-sighted 
 was his policy was shown later on, when in ' 1 846 the land- 
 lords, who had so obstinately tried to maintain their 
 monopoly, were utterly overthrown by the industrial and 
 inanufacturing interests. Timely concession on the lines 
 laid down by Canning would at least have abated the 
 distress of the people and certainly lessened the violence of 
 the change. 
 
 Such then was the situation — the Ultras and landlords 
 were vehemently opposed to Canning because of his views on 
 corn and'catholics, as well as because of his liberal foreign 
 policy. On February 17th, Liverpool was seized with a fit, 
 became insensible, and never recovered the use of his faculties. 
 This was a terrible blow to Canning, whom the premier had 
 greatly admired and heartily supported. Flattery cannot 
 describe Liverpool as at great statesman or as a great man, 
 
 * Stapleton, E.J. Correspondence II. 321. 
 
 t Yonge has tried at great length to prove Liverpool's extensive in- 
 fluence on foreign policy. It is a failure however. One of his two great 
 instances is— a cabinet memorandum on the colonies which he ascribes 
 
226 Life of Canning 
 
 but he united business ability and unrivalled official experi- 
 ence to infinite tact and good humour. Whilst Castlereagh 
 was at the Foreign Office he had largely succumbed to his 
 influence, afterwards he had submitted himself as readily to 
 Canning. He had soothed and calmed the irritable temper 
 of his great colleague, whenever maddened by the opposition 
 of Wellington or the sloth of Eldon he had offered his 
 resignation. He had been an Anti-catholic yet a Liberal in 
 foreign policy and the Corn Laws, and so formed an isthmus 
 between the Ultras and the Moderates. The great question 
 was now — who would be his successor ? "I think somehow," 
 wrote Mr. Creevey with extraordinary prophetic insight on 
 February 19th, " that it must be Canning and that he'll die 
 of it." The great avowed obstacle was the question of Roman 
 Catholic Emancipation. The principle, by which members of 
 the Government had agreed to vote independently on this 
 question and not to treat it as a Cabinet measure, was one of 
 exceedingly dubious constitutional law. On the most vital 
 and imminent of questions the Government had no policy, 
 but was constructed on a principle of counteraction. This 
 original arrangement of 1 812 Canning had opposed, but had 
 joined the ministry in 1816 on the understanding that Anti- 
 catholic views should not preclude any individual from any 
 office. There seems little doubt that Liverpool, who was 
 always talking of resigning, contemplated Canning as his 
 successor, there is none whatever that the latter viewed the 
 premiership as a natural reversion. In point of fact there 
 were only four serious competitors — Canning, Peel, Welling- 
 ton, or some insignificant peer under whom all would agree to 
 act. So far as genius and ability went no one could contest 
 the palm with Canning. Peel was indeed a man of great 
 talents, but much junior to his rival and confessedly his 
 inferior. The real contest was between Wellington and 
 Canning. Of the great Duke's political abilities it is enough 
 to say that he thought George the Third an ideal king and 
 Castlereagh an ideal statesman. But if short-sighted and a 
 Tory of Tories by nature, and not a great politician, he 
 
 to Liverpool. But we know from Stapleton that this was written by 
 Canning, Liverpool's copy no doubt, having his name written on it, 
 which may have misled his biographer. Yonge also thinks that by 
 letters to Canning in 1825 Liverpool first advocated the despatch of 
 troops to Portugal. Canning had already decided to do this in the case 
 of aggression from Spain or France in 1823 ! v. F.O. France. 284. 
 Spain. 268, passim. 
 
The Struggle for the Premiership 227 
 
 was at least a great man. His grand honesty of purpose, his 
 utter lack of ostentation and hatred of display, his love of 
 truth and simplicity erected even his obstinacy and bigotry 
 into virtues. If in the unhappy misunderstandings which 
 now arose the evidence were equally balanced the decision 
 would go against Canning or any other man, for in a sincere 
 and honest desire to serve the public in any position, however 
 humble, and always without thought of self, no one ever 
 equalled Wellington. But happily for Canning's fame it is 
 possible to show that Wellington was deceived and irritated 
 by various circumstances, and acted throughout under mis- 
 apprehension. 
 
 The only time Wellington ever met Nelson he described 
 him as at first talking like a charlatan and vain-glorious 
 boaster but eventually condescending to sense. Of course 
 the truth probably was that Nelson spoke in his usual pas- 
 sionate strains of England and his own patriotism, but per- 
 ceiving Wellington's coldness proceeded to give him naval 
 details and facts which at once appealed to that concrete 
 intellect. In the same way Wellington could see nothing in 
 Sir Sidney Smith, who, though somewhat flashy and boast- 
 ful, was a most able and brilliant officer, as he showed in his 
 repulse of Napoleon at Acre and in his blockade of the Tagus. 
 There is then little cause to wonder that Wellington pro- 
 nounced Canning, with his eloquence and poetic imagination, 
 to be a charlatan. He was enraged that Castlereagh should 
 have died unregretted while Canning had become so popular. 
 Moreover, though never obtrusive with advice, he was always 
 most angry if it was not taken when offered. Canning was 
 doubtless not tactful, frequently consulting with him but 
 seldom or never adopting his views. In foreign policy 
 Wellington had most bitterly opposed Canning's later 
 developments. He had threatened to resign over the 
 recognition of the New World, he had tried to prevent the 
 expedition to Portugal, he had strenuously opposed the 
 turning of his Russian Protocol into an arrangement eventu- 
 ally to be enforced at the cannon's mouth. He deeply sus- 
 pected Canning of hunting for popularity by conciliating the 
 Whigs. Being the friend of the landlords he disliked the 
 Corn-Relief Bill, whilst he thought Catholic Emancipation 
 would overturn the throne in 1827, though in 1829 he sud- 
 denly discovered it would be its strongest support. Here 
 then were grounds enough for difference and quarrel. 
 Wellington seems to have lost all reason and patience, and 
 
2 28 Life of Canning 
 
 some of his recorded remarks are the grossest misrepresenta- 
 tions. At one time he said that Canning had merely copied 
 Castlereagh's poHcy, at another that he had utterly departed 
 from those principles. But his worst calumny was when he 
 declared that Canning was a very idle man, an accusation 
 which is against every known fact and evidence which no one 
 can believe and which not even Canning's worst enemies had 
 hitherto ever made. When so sincere a truth-lover as 
 Wellington could make such ludicrous mis-statements one 
 can only conclude him blinded by prejudice or passion. 
 
 After an interval to see if Lord Liverpool would recover 
 Wellington had an audience of the king in the first week of 
 March. What passed is not known, but he must have ex- 
 pressed himself strongly against appointing a Catholic premier, 
 for on November 20th, 1826,* he had actually thought of send- 
 ing a memorandum to the king requesting him to put pressure 
 on Canning because of his advocacy of emancipation. It is pro- 
 bable that during this time the intrigues of the Ultras to 
 exclude Canning began. The Duke of Newcastle, the leader of 
 the landed interest, used his privilege as peer to secure an 
 audience with the king, violently protested against Canning, 
 and threatened to withdraw the support of himself and his 
 rotten boroughs from the Government. The Dukes of Rut- 
 land and Buckingham protested in language equally firm 
 though not so indecent. The king, though as late as 1797 an 
 Emancipator, had become a firm Anti-Catholic, but he was 
 now as attached to his Foreign Secretary as to his prerogative 
 and deeply resented this haughty dictation, which indeed 
 violated the whole spirit of the compromise of 181 2. On 
 March 22nd he consulted Canning, who seems to have acted 
 with perfect openness. As the king was opposed to Emanci- 
 pation Canning therefore advised him to form an exclusively 
 Anti-Catholic ministry. If he himself was to remain he would 
 not serve under an Anti-Catholic premier, as he thought that 
 infringed the neutrality of the compromise. He would how- 
 ever serve under a dummy Catholic premier, and suggested 
 Robinson becoming a peer for that purpose. Personally he 
 desired to remain Foreign Secretary, but the "substantive 
 power of the prime minister he must have and be known to 
 have." There was no modesty here, but there was no decep- 
 
 *III. 603. Well. Desp. N.S. v. for proposed memorandum. III. 462. 
 During most of April Wellington's letters have not been published. They 
 might clear up some obscurities. 
 
The Struggle for the Premiership 229 
 
 tion. Canning was really anxious about his foreign policy. 
 He believed he could only last three or four years longer, and 
 wished to secure it against attack. Liverpool had supported 
 him, but no other Anti-Catholic premier was likely to do so. 
 Wellington andxEldon usurped all the patronage of the Church 
 and the Army, and as distribution of places was then a great 
 influence in government, it was but fair that Canning or one 
 of his supporters should have the patronage of the Treasury 
 and the influence of the Premier to strengthen him in the 
 Cabinet. The king at first suggested the Cabinet should 
 choose their own chief, but this proposal was afterwards with- 
 drawn. Between March 27th and April 6th Canning did not 
 see the King, but Wellington and Peel were in frequent con- 
 sultation with him. The king was determined not to let 
 Canning go, and the Ultras were resolved to exclude him. 
 Peel's position was throughout fair and honourable, that of 
 irreconcilable hostility to anything Catholic. That of the 
 Ultras was disingenuous, they desired for personal reasons to 
 exclude Canning, because of his liberalism in corn and foreign 
 policy, and because of his personal ascendancy. But every- 
 thing was covered by their scruples about Emancipation, and 
 Wellington quite unconsciously in effect became their tool. 
 He certainly did not covet the premiership himself for personal 
 ends, but he wished to prevent Emancipation and check 
 liberalism, and consented to be put forward. On April 9th 
 Peel, forgetful of his usual "tact, brought forward a name he 
 thought would ' remove all difficulties,' that of the Duke of 
 Wellington. To this Canning refused to consent, and indeed 
 it would have been absurd to expect him to serve under the 
 man who opposed every point of his domestic and foreign 
 policy. But as he could hardly offer these grounds he was 
 obliged to make the somewhat pedantic excuse that this would 
 be uniting the supreme civil and military functions in one person. 
 This was decisive. Canning saw the king again on the loth 
 April, who expressed his indignation at his treatment by the 
 Ultras, and gave him his hand to kiss. Canning knelt and rose 
 up Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, and Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer. 
 
 When this was announced half a dozen of his colleagues 
 resigned. They all alleged that they resigned without concert 
 for personal reasons, but this excuse in fact can only be ex- 
 tended to Wellington. Eldon was an irreconcilable opponent 
 to Emancipation, made of pig-\xQx\. said Tom Moore, but was 
 perhaps old enough to have some excuse. Peel's departure 
 
230 Life of Canning 
 
 was expected, because the Home Secretary if Anti-Catholic 
 could hardly agree with a Catholic Premier. But there was 
 no such excuse for the s6t priv^ and the rest. Westmoreland, 
 Bathurst and Melville retired, the two former being enraged at 
 the failure of the intrigues to exclude Canning, the latter giv- 
 ing the canny Scotch reason that he did not think the govern- 
 ment could last. That Canning meant to maintain a balanced 
 and even opinion on the Catholic Question is clear, as Lord 
 Bexley, who at first retired, withdrew his resignation because 
 convinced of this fact. Wellington declared Canning's letter, 
 asking him to take part in the Government, was * unfriendly 
 and stiff and evinced no desire that he should join. He 
 replied by asking who was to be the head of the Government. 
 Historical precedents may have justified the Duke in this 
 request, but, after five weeks' suspense and Canning's known 
 decision, it could hardly be expected he would be the scribe 
 for someone else who was to be the real head. Canning 
 replied very shortly and curtly to the effect that he thought it 
 generally known that the man empowered to form a govern- 
 ment also headed it. Wellington t said the letter contained 
 " terms of taunt and rebuke," took it as a personal insult and 
 not only resigned his seat in the Cabinet but his command of 
 the Army. The latter was a fatal mistake, which even his 
 admirers do not defend, for he thus introduced political 
 bickerings and partisan resentments into the military service. 
 But at the same time Canning's letter was an equal error, for 
 it enabled Wellington to plead a personal cause for retirement, 
 whilst he would have had some difficulty in resigning on the 
 avowed political ground of Emancipation. Both men lost 
 their tempers and in an angry correspondence that ensued 
 they were at cross-purposes, referring to different interviews 
 and misunderstanding one another. The truth in brief is this 
 — Wellington thought Canning had been intriguing with the 
 Whigs to exclude him and his friends, and Canning, who knew 
 of the Ultra intrigues against him, thought Wellington their 
 avowed, whereas he was only their unconscious, leader. 
 
 Canning was left with Bexley, Huskisson, Sturges — Bourne, 
 
 * This was partly due to the formal and official character of the note 
 which was shown to the king. 
 
 + What added greatly to the sting was the knowledge that it had been 
 shown to the king, whom Wellington heartily despised. The letter is un- 
 doubtedly blunt, but hardly justifies Wellington's intense personal resent- 
 ment, Greville — ap. Jan. 4th, 1 881 —is most instructive on this crisis. 
 
The Struggle for the Premiership 231 
 
 Palmerston, Dudley and Portland to form a Cabinet. He therefore 
 sought a coalition with the moderate Whigs. The Opposition 
 had long been viewing his conduct of our foreign policy with 
 intense admiration. As early as March, 1 824, Colonel Berquer* 
 wrote to Sir Robert Wilson : 'The contrast of his admini- 
 stration with that of his suicide predecessor is the golden age 
 coming on the heels of the iron.' On* November ist, 1824, 
 even so great a democrat as Erskine wrote " Canning did him- 
 self great honour. . . I begin to entertain a good opinion of 
 him. . . and if he should persevere in the same manly and 
 liberal course of conduct he will become very popular." It 
 only needed the expedition to Portugal to complete the Whig 
 transports and their famous club at Brooks rang with his 
 praises. Canning had always been on friendly terms with 
 some of them, and on 26th March he interviewed Wilson and 
 Brougham as individuals. The accusation that Canning intrigued 
 with the Whigs as a body before April loth is untrue, and 
 directly refuted by Sir Robert Wilson himself That gallant 
 officer was now the chief agent between Canning and the 
 Whigs, and to his tact and skill may be ascribed the success 
 of the negotiation.! Brougham, the ambitious and treacherous, 
 was carefully soothed and flattered into acquiescence. But 
 the great Whig chiefs Lansdowne and Tierney were the two 
 whose influence decided the party, at a meeting at Lansdowne 
 House, to join Canning. The Opposition had been singularly 
 disinterested during the last few years, and it was no less so 
 in the terms it now made. Canning would not yield a single 
 one of his principles, the Government was pledged to oppose 
 Reform and the Repeal of the test Acts. The Catholic 
 question remained open whilst it was agreed that, so far as 
 possible, Irish administrative appointments should be assigned 
 without reference to opinion. Lansdowne tried to insist on 
 the lead in the Lords, but this Canning would not grant and 
 raised Robinson to the peerage with the title of Viscount 
 Goderich for that purpose. Eventually a compromise was 
 arranged, Tierney became Master of the Mint whilst the 
 Duke of Clarence, who had Whig leanings, was appointed 
 Lord High Admiral. |Plunket, the great Catholic champion, 
 was given a peerage. Among admirable appointments, in which 
 
 *Ad. MSS 30, III. 
 
 •f His inability to abandon his practice atthe Bar precluded his admission 
 to the ministry, but he was granted a patent of precedency. It is character- 
 istic that at the moment he was writing to Lansdowne of Canning in the 
 warmest terms, he was expressing suspicions of him to Grey ! 
 
232 Life of Canning 
 
 Canning's hand is discerned, were those of Copley (Lyndhurst) 
 to be Lord Chancellor of England, Anglesea to be Irish Viceroy, 
 whilst the incompetent Lord Manners made way for the 
 capable Sir Anthony Hart in the Chancellorship of Ireland. 
 Outside the walls of parliament the new ministry was hailed 
 with wild enthusiasm. The press and the people both were 
 in transports because of Canning's victory over those, whom 
 they genially termed ' his late bigoted and despised colleagues.' 
 For once the choice of the crown was the choice of the people. 
 Ireland hailed with delight the triumph of one who had always 
 been her friend, and the French newspapers went into raptures 
 over the elevation of the man whom they termed " The minister 
 of Representative Europe." 
 
 As far as Canning was concerned, no principle had been 
 abandoned and the coalition was of the most honourable kind. 
 But dissensions within a party always excite the bitterest 
 passions. Many ejected placemen now became "patriots 
 bursting with heroic rage." The nominees of Newcastle, West- 
 moreland, and Buckingham, Tadpoles and Tapers, displaced 
 party hacks and intriguers of all kinds, unctuously denounced 
 this " new and most base coalition." No discreditable party- 
 device was left untried, no insinuation was too odious, and 
 every mean and low motive was ascribed to the premier. 
 That Canning felt this deeply cannot be denied, but the old 
 wit and humour was still his stay and support. On May 4th, 
 just after a motion had been proposed, Dawson most improperly 
 interrupted the debate and asked whether any arrangement had 
 been made for filling up the offices of Master of the Mint, Judge 
 Advocate, and Surveyor of Woods and Forests. " The answer 
 was the monosyllable * ' yes,' but pronounced in such a tone of 
 mingled scorn, anger, and grief that it seemed as if the heart of 
 himjwho uttered it were breaking with vexation and disappoint- 
 ment." Dawson then moved for copies of the patents of 
 appointment, but Canning replied " I know not how this can 
 have the effect of satisfying his anxiety, unless it be according 
 to the old Cambridge problem that the masts and the guns of 
 the ship being given, and dividing by the men you get at the 
 name of the captain." For parallels to the virulence with 
 which Canning was assailed we must recall Pulteney hounding 
 on his followers against Walpole, or think of the day when 
 Melville's impeachment was carried and Sir Thomas Mostyn 
 
 * Earl Russell Recollections and Suggestions, p. 57. He adds " I 
 remember nothing like it but Kean's answer to lago, ' You are moved,' 
 he replies ' not a jot,' in a voice of the deepest anxiety and emotion." 
 
The Struggle for the Premiership 233 
 
 gave a view-halloa and shouted " We have killed the fox." In 
 the Commons Peel and the other leaders loftily abstained from 
 these recriminations, which were carried on by men of com- 
 parative insignificance such as Dawson, Hugessen and Leth- 
 bridge. In general Canning mfet these coarse attacks with a 
 calm temper, and a new dignity and serenity which surprised 
 and delighted his followers. One of the noblest passages in 
 all his orations is that in which he explained that he had 
 advised the King to form an Anti-Catholic ministry, but that 
 he would not himself remain in a Cabinet which sanctioned a 
 principle of exclusion against some of its own members for 
 opinions which they were professedly free to hold.* " I will 
 retire altogether and forever from public life — I will betake 
 myself to the farthest boundary of the earth and into perpetual 
 banishment — I will resign any and every hope of oifice — for 
 I care nothing for office — but I will not consent to disgrace 
 myself by consenting to sanction a principle, which must bring 
 degradation as well upon myself, as upon those who would 
 become subject to such exclusion, on account of holding these 
 opinions." 
 
 The followers of Canning always declared that he "had 
 been hunted to death in the Commons." They should rather 
 have turned to the Upper House and exclaimed " Here wast 
 thou bayed, brave hart ! " There indeed stood the real hunters 
 " signed in his spoil." After all the revilers in the Commons 
 were but underlings, as it were the dogs driven on by the 
 crack of the noble huntsman's whip. Those in the Lords were 
 real leaders. Wellington, though dignified, was emphatic in 
 stern condemnation. Londonderry declared Canning had 
 betrayed and abandoned all the principles of Castlereagh. 
 This if true would have deprived that statesman of his only 
 claim to fame, which is that he prepared the path and Initiated 
 the policy which Canning adopted. Knowing how much of that 
 initiation was due to Canning we can, however, understand 
 Londonderry's attitude. Newcastle denounced the new 
 premier " as the most profligate minister that ever was in 
 power," conveniently forgetting that of his own two ancestors 
 who had attained to the Treasury, one, after proving himself 
 the most incompetent of all modern premiers, had consented 
 to what was on his side a most base and ignoble coalition, 
 whilst both had excelled their master Walpole in the base arts of 
 political corruption. But far the most envenomed attack 
 
 * May 1st, 1827. 
 
 IS 
 
2 34 Life of Canning 
 
 was delivered by Earl Grey. Since the days of the " Anti- 
 Jacobin " he had always detested Canning, who had made 
 him especially ridiculous by exposing his inconsistencies. 
 Grey was a man of high character, but proud, sensitive and 
 ambitious, and he proved a good hater. The failure of 
 Canning's negotiations in i8i2 was due largely to Grey's 
 personal animosity. During the negotiations of April, 1827, 
 he held steadfastly aloof, and declared with selfish aristocratic 
 prejudice that he regarded 'the son of an actress as de facto 
 incapacitated from becoming premier of England." But 
 personal reasons were not the only cause of his dissent, he 
 seems genuinely to have feared that the distinctive principles 
 of the Whig party would be effaced by the contemplated 
 union. Canning professed the better parts of both Tory and 
 Whig creeds, and his great popularity in the country was due 
 to this fact that he really represented the collective national 
 feeling better than either party. To the zealous partisan such 
 a man was a dangerous and insidious enemy. Grey may also 
 have heard some of the usual wild exaggerations and mis- 
 statements made by * the king, which may have led him to 
 think Canning had abandoned the Catholics. Knowing 
 George's betrayal of the Whigs as Regent and his own refusal 
 to put any faith in him between 1810-12, it is however surpris- 
 ing that Grey shouldnow have believed him. In fact George IV 
 supported Canning manfully during the crisis but, as Grey 
 knew, the royal actions and the royal words often had no 
 relation to one another. On May 7th Grey delivered an 
 oration arraigning Canning's public conduct, insinuating that 
 he was a trickster in every point of his political career, whilst 
 in foreign policy he was but a mere boastful impostor, 
 trampling on national rights for the sake of commercial gains. 
 These charges have been refuted in detail by some statements 
 drawn up by Canning himself and published by Stapleton. 
 It is sufficient to say that they depend for their force upon 
 misquotation of published documents and papers, and mis- 
 reading of all events upon which the public was not fully 
 informed. Knowing as we do the indecent and disingenuous 
 denunciation pronounced by Grey on the Danish expedition 
 in 1807, when he himself as Foreign Secretary had threatened 
 Denmark with war for much slighter causes but a few months 
 before, it seems hard to acquit him of intentional misrepre- 
 
 *v. some very extraordinary passages in Buckingham's Memoirs of 
 Courts and Cabinets of George IV about this time. II. 346 et seqq. and 
 Hill, 191. 
 
The Struggle for the Premiership 235 
 
 sentation. His only excuse must be that he was not behind 
 the scenes in 1827, and that feelings of pride, contempt 
 and hatred deprived him of all fairness of judgment. 
 Canning himself was wounded and pierced to the heart by 
 this savage assault, and seriously deliberated whether he 
 should take a peerage in order to answer it. All the taunts 
 and sarcasms and invectives of the Commons had not so 
 moved and stirred him, and his wife afterwards declared that 
 she believed it had shortened his life. 
 
 Canning's ministry was never really proved or tried. It 
 fell with the fall of its great chief, who alone could unite its 
 discordant elements. Goderich quietly succeeded to the 
 premiership, but that " transient embarrassed phantom " was 
 incapable of firmness and resolution, Richard Cromwell as it 
 were succeeding the Great Oliver. Before the end of the 
 year the ministry had resigned. Yet none the less Canning's 
 premiership had done much. It had broken that close aristo- 
 cratic clique of Tories, who had so long monopolised power, as 
 effectually as George the Third had routed the Whigs. 
 Wellington's ministry backed by the whole landed interest 
 only lasted three years and fell amidst universal detestation. 
 The Whigs had learnt unity and moderation, the Tories com- 
 promise and concession beneath the standard of Canning. 
 Above all Falmerston was converted from Toryism and 
 thence forward the foreign policy of the Whigs, for the next 
 thirty years, was shaped and moulded by that masterful per- 
 sonality. 
 
 Before the Cabinet had been fully made up the session was 
 already at its close. On June 31st Canning introduced his 
 first and last budget. The disturbances and trials of the past 
 few months enabled him only to carry on the temporary 
 expedients of the preceding years. But he announced himself 
 a disciple of Adam Smith and Pitt, and declared he would 
 frame his future budgets in accordance with their principles. 
 Further he added that he trusted less to legislative enactments 
 for improvement of trade than to the character and enterprise 
 of merchants and manufacturers, thus avowing himself a free- 
 trader. On June i8thand2isthe spoke on theCorn Amendment 
 Bill, and with the exception of a few brief words these were his 
 last speeches in the House. All the advantages of that Bill 
 had been in effect annulled in the Lords by an amendment 
 carried by Wellington, declaring that foreign corn should not 
 be taken out of bond till corn had reached sixty-six shillings. 
 The object of the Bill had beento lessen the price of bread 
 
236 Life of Canning 
 
 in England by supplying foreign corn, whenever the sale of it 
 was remunerative according to a fixed scale. By altering this 
 scale Wellington completely defeated the object of the Bill 
 and assisted the English land-owners at the expense of the 
 people. Canning was quite justified in describing this amend- 
 ment as introducing not only new principles but as contrary 
 to the whole object of the original bill. He further declared 
 that Wellington had unconsciously allowed himself to " become 
 an instrument in the hands of others," which was perfectly true. 
 But all Canning could do was to say that he would bring in a 
 new bill the next session, in which we know he designed to 
 lower the price at which corn could be imported into England 
 to fifty shillings per quarter. He thus designed to avert the 
 coming struggle between the landed and industrial interests. 
 These were his last words and legacy to the House and they 
 were remembered by a great statesman of the future. " I never 
 saw Canning but once," said Disraeli, " but I can recollect it 
 but as yesterday, when I listened to almost the last accents — 
 I may say the dying words — of that great man, I can recall 
 the lightning flash of that eye and the tumult of that ethereal 
 brow ; still lingers in my ear the melody of that voice." 
 
 Canning was only fifty-seven, two years younger than Glad- 
 stone at the first of his four premierships. But the incredible 
 labours and cares of uniting the foreign office with the lead 
 in the Commons, disappointments and sorrows had worn and 
 fretted the dauntless spirit. A doctor suddenly summoned 
 before the Privy Council Board, asked a friend " who is that 
 individual with such a fine eye who is so near his end ? " When 
 he heard it was Canning he was horrorstruck, for he was one 
 of the great man's admirers. The Duke of Devonshire had 
 offered Canning his country house at Chiswickin which he 
 might recuperate. " Do not go there," said Lady Holland to the 
 premier. "Why?" said he. "Oh" said she " I have a presenti- 
 ment, you know Mr. Fox died there." Canning laughed 
 gaily, but even Lady Holland could never afterwards speak of 
 this incident without emotion. In after days Huskisson told a 
 deeply-moved House of Commons the story of his last visit to 
 his friend. He found Canning ill and pale and worn, yet 
 " his enthusiasm for his country knew no bounds, and, added 
 Huskisson, he sacrificed himself as truly in the service of his 
 country as Nelson, to whom alone for patriotism and devotion 
 he could be compared. To the last, in spite of terrible weak- 
 ness, his thoughts were of the future of England and of 
 Europe. During July the Treaty which should give freedom 
 
The Struggle for the Premiership 237 
 
 to Greece, and the preliminaries of an agreement, by which 
 Brazil abandoned the slave trade, were signed, both of which 
 results flowed directly from the impulse and initiative of 
 Canning. On July 30th he had his last audience with the 
 king at Windsor, and a stranger who saw him driving from 
 the Castle gates saw death in his looks. Hardly had he 
 reached Chiswick than he fell violently ill and took to his 
 bed, from which he never rose. The little tapestried room in 
 which he lay was that in which Fox had died. For a week 
 the country was hushed in suspense, royal dukes stood at his 
 bed-side, ambassadors thronged the ante-rooms. His complaint 
 was one of the most painful from which it is possible to suffer, 
 an internal inflammation so terrible and so widespread that 
 the doctors could not tell from which part of the body it had 
 arisen. Almost his last intervals of consciousness were de- 
 voted to framing a memorandum on the subject of Portugal. 
 Often his mind wandered and listeners caught the names of 
 Portugal, Spain, and England from his lips. His sufferings 
 were agonising, but at the last were suddenly abated. Poor 
 Joan, his devoted wife, was alone with him when he began 
 suddenly to talk with perfect consciousness. She listened for 
 a time with delight, but observing the signs of speedy dissolu- 
 tion overspreading his face, fainted and was borne from the 
 room. The end was very. near and on the 8th of August he 
 passed quietly away. On the sixteenth his body was carried 
 to its rest in the Great Abbey, which has received and treasured 
 so much of noble and heroic dust. Young Charles Canning 
 — the future Viceroy — was chief mourner, and was supported 
 by two royal princes — the heir to the throne and the Duke 
 of Sussex. Though the funeral was private in character 
 immense crowds thronged the streets, in whose deep and 
 solemn silence could be read the signs of a nation's grief. 
 The ceremony was of the simplest kind, and though all the 
 foreign ambassadors and some of the greatest and mightiest 
 in the land were present, all were divested of the symbols and 
 attributes of rank or splendour. While the service was being 
 read poor Charles Canning gave way to the most heart- 
 rending grief, and tears were seen in the eyes of Seaford and 
 Goderich and others of his father's earliest and most faithful 
 friends. The coffin was lowered into a vault, which adjoined 
 the tomb of the man whom the dead statesman had 
 reverenced as a father. All the petty differences which had 
 once disturbed their friendship had long been forgotten, and 
 the body of Canning lies where he would most have desired 
 
238 Life of Canning 
 
 it to rest,— at the foot of the grave of Pitt. To the statesman 
 this spot should be as sacred, as is to the poet the green 
 pyramid of Caius Cestius at Rome where Keats and Shelley 
 lie buried. 
 
 " In a time of profound peace the death of Canning was 
 felt throughout the world as an omen of general danger." 
 So said Hookham Frere, and he was right in thinking it a 
 world-event. " It was an event in the internal history of every 
 country," wrote Mackintosh, attempting the temper of the 
 historian of future times. ' From Lima to Athens, every 
 nation struggling for independence or existence, was filled 
 with sorrow and dismay. The Miguelites of Portugal, the 
 Apostolicals of Spain, the Jesuit faction in France, and the 
 Divan of Constantinople raised a shout of joy at the fall of 
 their dreaded enemy.' A medal was struck in France at the 
 public expense which bore on one side the figure of civil and 
 religious liberty, on the other this inscription : — i George 
 Canning toute la nation fran9aise.' But after all it was always 
 Gentz and Metternich who contrived to praise Canning 
 most. The former spoke of the event as " une nouvelle dont 
 I'immense importance se fera bientot sentir dans toutes les 
 transactions politiques.' From the character and circumstance 
 of the age, from the influence of his policy even more than 
 from the dazzling qualities of his genius, it may be doubted 
 whether the death of any English statesman ever awakened 
 such ecstacies of joy or intensities of sorrow among the 
 courts and peoples of Europe. One of the innumerable 
 poems, elegies and dirges called forth by the occasion well 
 shows the universal, as it were the international, grief. The 
 author imagines himself traversing foreign lands in a dream: — 
 
 " From every clime a mourner came, 
 Till memory could no record keep; 
 All wept one loss all breathed one name; — 
 My sorrow burst the bounds of sleep, 
 I woke and found my dream was true. 
 My country! Thou wert weeping too ! " 
 
 It was to many as though the very sun had set in the sky, 
 whilst even opponents like Grey were awed and shocked by 
 the premature extinction of talents so great and splendid. 
 The fame of Canning in his own land had been but the 
 shadow of his glory abroad. Yet perhaps the most genuine 
 and unafTected of all tributes to his memory came from 
 England. It was from a boy who undertook a pilgrimage 
 
The Struggle for the Premiership 239 
 
 from Eton to Westminster Abbey, there to mourn and pray 
 at the tomb of his hero. That boy was William Ewart Glad- 
 stone, who, musing over that great name, which was now alas ! 
 only a memory, drew from it perhaps something of the lofti- 
 ness and inspiration of his own high ideal. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 A PARADOXICAL modem philosopher has maintained that 
 genius detests the peace of the fireside and tires at the long 
 rubber of connubial life. All prominent English statesmen, 
 from Chatham to Gladstone, stand forth to assure him either 
 that this theory is false or that they have no genius. The case 
 of Canning is the more remarkable, because he cannot be said 
 to have urged his suit under the sole influence and passion of 
 romantic love. In old days his fancy had been caught by 
 Lady Elizabeth Spencer, as he told Lord Boringdon, — 
 
 " My heart was scorched and burnt to tinder 
 When talking to her at the winder." 
 
 On another occasion he wrote to Mrs. Leigh — 
 
 " And when to ease the load of life, 
 Of private care and public strife, 
 My lot shall give to me a wife, 
 I ask not rank or riches." 
 
 But he soon modified these sentiments, and became engaged 
 to Miss Joan Scott, the heiress to ;^i 00,000. Frere has described 
 the wedding which took place on July 8th, 1800. 
 
 (*) " I was to be best man and Pitt, Canning and Mr. Leigh 
 (Canning's cousin who was to read the service) dined with me. 
 We had a coach to church and as we went down a narrow 
 street a fellow drew up against the wall, to avoid being run 
 over, and peering into the coach, recognized Pitt and saw Mr. 
 Leigh, who was in full canonicals, sitting opposite to him. 
 The fellow exclaimed, " What, Billy Pitt, and with a parson 
 too ! " Frere, ever ready with his joke, said to Pitt, " He 
 thinks you are going to Tyburn to be hanged privately," but 
 the Olympian was too absorbed either to be angry or to 
 
 * Gabrielle Festing — Hookham Frere and his Friends p. 31. 
 
Characteristics 241 
 
 answer. So nervous was Pitt during the ceremony that he 
 forgot to sign among the witnesses. " He regarded the 
 marriage as the one thing needed to give Canning the position 
 necessary to lead a party, and this was the cause of his 
 anxiety. . . . Had Canning been Pitt's own son, I do not 
 think that he could have been more interested in all that 
 related to his marriage." 
 
 Canning's marriage, unlike that of his parents, had been the 
 reverse of improvident ; but if he married for money he at 
 least rendered the most intense devotion and affection to his 
 wife. Though graceful and attractive she was never 
 prominent in society, by reason of her retiring modesty. She 
 had already given half her fortune to her sister, who had been 
 disinherited for marrying a Duke, and her character seems 
 to have been most gentle, lovable and generous. Though 
 devoted to her husband she did not yield to him in everything, 
 and told him he was wrong in his conduct to Pitt and 
 Addington, even while she copied out the famous squibs 
 against the " Doctor." She acted as her husband's secretary, 
 wrote his letters and listened to his speeches which he used to 
 recite to her before delivery. In after years she wrote a 
 pamphlet to defend his policy and vindicate his fame, and 
 shewed more grasp of either than the laborious Mr. Stapleton, 
 for all his two-thousand pages. " Joan and I think this," 
 " Joan bears all like a little heroine," " Joan — my chief means 
 of happiness," these and a thousand other fond expressions 
 scattered through his letters show Canning's love and pride 
 in her. " I know nobody," wrote he to Frere, " who has more 
 to make them happy, or is more happy and thankful for the 
 means of happiness within their power than I ought to be and 
 than I am" In the " lines addressed to Miss Scott before 
 marriage " he writes, 
 
 ' Firm in thy faith the dangerous path I tread, 
 Or sheltered in thy arms forget my fall.' 
 
 And he did not write or trust in vain. The love of his wife 
 enhanced every achievement and consoled for every disap- 
 pointment, for in sorrow as in joy her smile was always his 
 triumph and her praise ever his goal. 
 
 As a bachelor Canning had lived in one of the quaint old 
 seventeenth century houses in Spring Gardens. He now re- 
 moved to South Hill Place in Windsor Forest. He loved the 
 country, where " he always felt like a schoolboy away for the 
 holidays," for he was passionately fond of flowers, and as 
 enthusiastic to raise his own potatoes and turnips as Burke 
 
242 Life of Canning 
 
 or old King George. He writes with zest to Frere,* offers to 
 let him 20 acres, has sold 15 tod of wool and two diamond 
 snuff-boxes, and is full of farming projects. . He adds 
 ominously " I hope you will find foreign ministering a more 
 profitable trade," and bids him remember the orange trees for 
 Joan's conservatory. He tells how the Princess of Wales 
 acted as Godmother and Dundas and Lord Titchfield as 
 Godfathers to his son, George Charles, and how Joan was 
 worried because the new chintz bed, in which the " Fairy 
 Godmother" was to sleep, had been wrongly done up by the 
 upholsterer. His son " is one of the finest boys — if not the 
 very finest — that ever was seen, plump, good-natured, lively 
 full of health and vigour and spirits — -having blue eyes, which 
 I am assured are to turn to exactly the colour of mine and 
 Joan's .... and promising for his years or weeks rather 
 beyond what it would be prudent for me to announce to a 
 world naturally bent upon depreciating extraordinary merit." 
 The following lines written by Canning in 1820 show the end 
 to these fond hopes : — 
 
 " Oh marked from birlh, and nurtured for the skies I 
 In youth with more than learning's wisdom, wise ! 
 As sainted martyrs patient to endure ! 
 Simple as unweaned infancy and pure ! 
 Pure from all stain (save that of human clay 
 Which Christ's atoning blood hath washed away !) 
 By mental sufferings now no more oppressed, 
 Mount sinless spirit to thy destined rest ! 
 While I — reversed our nature's kindlier doom — 
 Pour forth a father's sorrows on thy tomb." 
 
 Canning had two other sons besides poor George Charles, of 
 whom one became a captain in the royal navy, the other the 
 famous Indian Viceroy of the Mutiny, whose once opprobrious 
 nickname of " Clemency Canning " is now his proudest title 
 to honour. Canning had one daughter — Harriet — who, as a 
 little girl, used to interrupt him amid his papers and des- 
 patches by climbing on his knee and begging him to play 
 with her. She was married in 1825 to the Marquis of 
 Clanricarde, and long reigned the queen of Irish Society. 
 Brougham wrote of her, " She is the cleverest woman I almost 
 ever knew and the most accomplished ; indeed quite worthy 
 of her parentage." Generous, passionate and impulsive, she 
 was a true daughter of the great statesman, and Macaulay has 
 recorded the impression made upon him by her beauty and 
 superb air of indignation when in his presence she poured 
 
 * July 7, 1801 — Festing, pp. 55 et seq. 
 
Characteristics 243 
 
 scorn on the men who had deserted or calumniated her 
 father. 
 
 But Canning was not only idolized by his family, for it was 
 remarked, when his fortunes were at their lowest, that "no 
 man had so little popularity or so many affectionate friends." 
 In his youth he had loved and reverenced Pitt as a father, he 
 had talked with the courtly Windham, and listened to the 
 oracular Burke, and despite political differences had remained 
 the fast friend of Lord Holland, Lord Grenville and Sheridan. 
 He was the personal friend * of Nelson, whose heroic spirit 
 perhaps gave to his foreign policy something of its vigour and 
 daring. He was the life-long comrade of Liverpool, Wellesley, 
 and Huskisson, over all of whom he had extraordinary 
 influence. Frere loved him like a brother and thought no one 
 in the world his equal. Sturges Bourne, Charles Wynn, 
 Robinson, Lord Boringdon, Lord Carlisle formed, with many 
 others, the lesser satellites in his train. He possessed a 
 charm of manner which won and dazzled at first sight. Tom 
 Moore came away from the first meeting swearing he would 
 never write another line against him. Once a gentleman 
 appeared at the Alfred Club, and desiring to dine immediately, 
 was admitted to the coffee-room where a legal dinner was 
 in progress. So extraordinary agreeable and interesting was 
 he that on his departure the chairman rang the bell and de- 
 manded his name. " That, Sir, is Mr. Canning, the Prime 
 Minister," replied the scandalized official, and is said to have 
 resigned as a protest against such lack of discernment* The 
 chairman had paid a compliment to Canning as great as that 
 of Johnson, when he said that no one could talk with Burke 
 under an archway without discovering him to be an extra- 
 ordinary man. Many great men have strutted, declaimed 
 and enforced applause from their own family and their friends, 
 but in private intercourse Canning was simple, natural, re- 
 sistless, full of fun and merriment, and without thought of 
 shinirig or superiority. Rush has an account of a small 
 dinner given at Gloucester Lodge, the later home of Canning 
 — a villa two miles from town embowered in trees, with a 
 smoothly shaven lawn and leafy winding paths of shade. 
 Huskisson, Grenville, Robinson and several of the diplomatic 
 
 * Nelson's motto " Palmam qui meruit ferat " was adopted from a 
 quotation made by Canning in his famous eulogy of the Victory of the 
 Nile, Dec. li, 1798. 
 
 I This anecdote — long doubted is now established. Grant DuflPs notes 
 from a Diary, 1873-81, I. 198. 
 
244 Life of Canning 
 
 corps were present. Canning's "' quick eye was all round the 
 table, his aim was to draw out others." He proposed the 
 " Twenty Questions," a game in which the interrogators are 
 allowed twenty questions to find out from their adversaries 
 the object of their thoughts. Canning and Robinson 
 catechized Rush and Grenville. After the twentieth answer 
 Canning sat silent for some time, and then a little tremulous 
 but with a merry twinkle, said, " I think it must be the wand 
 of the Lord High Steward." A burst of applause followed ; 
 but here the diplomatists humorously intervened, and asked 
 him to discontinue or else he might find out their secrets. 
 
 Perhaps a few strokes of his own pen will show Canning 
 among his friends in the clearest light. The first letter is to 
 the Reverend W. Douglas and bears the date June 13, 181 3, 
 and shows how merry was Canning's spirit, even when his 
 political fortunes were at ther lowest ebb. Douglas was a 
 college friend of whom while at Christ Church Canning 
 wrote : — 
 
 " That the stones of the chapel are both black and white 
 Is most undeniably true. 
 But as Douglas walks over them morning and night 
 It's a wonder they're not black and blue." 
 
 Bulk was evidently accompaned by laziness, for Canning's 
 demands are peremptory. " We want to go to Ascot on 
 Friday* and if you will look to the almanack at the beginning 
 of your prayer book, you will find by accurate calculation 
 that, unless you write, by return. . . . we cannot get your 
 letter on Friday. ... I humbly request your forgiveness for 
 presuming to abstract your attention from things spiritual 
 for so long a time as it will take you to read and answer this 
 letter, but I rely on the meek forgiveness of your temper and 
 profession for my pardon, and in the joyful hope of a speedy 
 reply I conclude with subscribing myself — for myself and 
 Sturges, (Bourne) Your Holiness' most devoted servant, 
 George Canning." Here he is at play and now a glimpse of 
 him at work. He is taking the waters at Bath and writes to 
 Frere Jan. 8, 1825.! "I have two younkers of secretaries 
 with me whom I work very hard all the morning till about 
 half past one, when Liverpool presents himself at the door on 
 a grey mare and with a pair of huge jack boots, of the size 
 and consistency of fire buckets (only not lettered). I mount 
 a grey horse to join him on his ride (with one or other of my 
 
 * Add. MSS. 27,337. B.M. 
 t p. 265. Festing — Frere. 
 
Characteristics 245 
 
 aide-de-camps) and with boots not quite so large and stiff as 
 his, but in revenge with a pair of large gouty woollen shoes over 
 them. In this fashion we parade through the town. In the 
 evening I send my younkers to the play or ball, and I go and 
 drink tea with my mother, and then about half past ten home 
 to bed." 
 
 From the time of his marriage Canning lived* so retired and 
 private a life that he could avow on his honour in Parliament 
 that he never heard a word of scandal about the Duke of 
 York till his misdeeds became the subject of Parliamentary 
 Inquiry. Before this he had been the life and soul of every 
 company which he entered. " After George Selwyn, and 
 perhaps Tickell, there has been no such man this half-century," 
 said Sydney Smith, and neither of these had any pretensions 
 to delicate or refined wit. Lady Erroll, who hated Canning, no 
 sooner got into conversation with him than " I was obliged to 
 laugh at some of his fun, which I had settled not to do" He 
 talked as well as he spoke, and Stratford Canning, who had 
 known all the wits and statesmen of Europe, thought he had 
 never met the equal of his cousin in conversation. When 
 Madame de Stael came to England Canning was a constant 
 visitor at her house, where he met the Due de Broglie, Sheridan 
 and the learned Mackintosh. But the only house at which he 
 was often seen after 1800 was that of Lydia White, a spinster 
 who presided over one of the last of English salons. There were 
 to be seen both authors and politicians — Castlereagh with his 
 stately air and cold handsome mask-like features, Charles 
 Ellis his rival's second in the famous duel, and Hookham 
 Frere bubbling with wit and merriment. There too was 
 Scott, kindly and genial, full of his old-world legends which 
 he told with a homely burr. Byron with his pale proud face, 
 black curls and gloomy air listened impatiently to Admiral 
 Sir Sidney Smith, who told him of his exploits and his wrongs. 
 Moore, fussy, vain and sentimental, often sang and played his 
 Irish melodies, whilst Rogers listened with a sardonic smile. 
 There too is Canning himself, pale and handsome, joking 
 with Frere and Scott, bandying repartee with Rogers, 
 soothing the vanity of the Admiral and praising the poems of 
 Byron. Truly 
 
 ' Doris amara suam non intermiscuit undam.' 
 How strange a contrast to those stormy struggles in the 
 
 « Lord Brougham (Histl. Sketches, Canning) rightly and clearly refutes 
 the slander of Sydney Smith that Canning was a ' diner-out.' 
 
246 Life oj Canning 
 
 Cabinet with Eldon or Wellington, or in Parliament with 
 Brougham or Lambton ! 
 
 The jokes of Canning are a legend and a proverb, and the 
 flotsam of a generation of unknown or forgotten wits has 
 been claimed as his sovereign right. His vindication is writ 
 large through both letters and speeches, but a few authentic 
 examples of his conversational wit are preserved. He had 
 both wit and humour, both epigrammatic point and boisterous 
 fun were his in an extraordinary degree. The nineteenth 
 century had shown itself superior to every other in the com- 
 parative disuse of that worst form of wit — puns — and Canning 
 used them but sparingly. He nicknamed ' Doctor' Adding- 
 ton's house, which was built in a very Italian style, the villa 
 Medici. He wrote this epitaph on Mrs. Crewe's dog Quon — 
 buried near a creamery : — 
 
 " Poor Quon lies buried in this dairy 
 And is not that a sad quandary." 
 
 Londonderry said to him one day — " 1 saw a Dutch picture of 
 the animals going into the ark — the elephant came last, why 
 was that ? " " Oh," said Canning, " he was packing up his 
 trunk." But he excelled most in humorous contrasts of 
 opposites, in ludicrous images and flashes of quaint fancy. 
 " There is no first fault for church at Eton, father," says his 
 son. " Nullum tempus occurrit ecclesiae, my boy," said 
 Canning. The editors of the Microcosm sat in council on the 
 line, " By the blue lustre of her languid eye." We must 
 change the epithet ' languid,' " said they. " How about 
 ' swivel ? ' said Canning. When the Privy Council were 
 arranging for a reception of the king of the Sandwich Isles, 
 one councillor said, " We can't leave Byng out." Byng was 
 Master of the Ceremonies and nicknamed "The Poodle." 
 " He'll go under the table," said the witty Foreign Secretary. 
 Tom Moore used to say that those who did not appreciate 
 the following had no perception of real wit. " Pray, Mr. 
 Canning," said a lady, " why have they made the spaces in 
 the iron-gate at Spring Gardens so narrow ? " " Oh, ma'am," 
 said he, " because such very fat people used to go through." 
 On one occasion the African Society of which Canning was a 
 Vice President demanded twenty guineas from him, ignorant 
 that he had already given a subscription. Discovering this 
 awkward slip they sent a deputation of three, headed by 
 Wilberforce, to explain. " Never surely," said Canning, " was 
 so splendid an embassy sent to make atonement for so small 
 an offence since the mission of Ulysses Ajax and Phoenix to 
 
Characteristics 247 
 
 apologise for the seizure of Briseis, who in those days was 
 probably worth about twenty-one pounds." Last of all there 
 is the certainly characteristic and surely authentic speech at a 
 fish dinner. " Gentlemen, this is a fish dinner. Fish drink 
 much and say little. While you follow their example in the 
 first respect, allow me to follow it in the second ! " 
 
 As the Puritans loved their Bible so the statesmen of the 
 eighteenth century loved their classics. Burke and Wind- 
 ham travelled by stage coach from Edinburgh to London 
 and talked of nothing else. Fox was wont to solace himself 
 with Lucretius and Theocritus after a night's losses at Faro. 
 Wellesley prided himself more on his Latin verses than on 
 his Indian administration. Pitt and Grenville once met to 
 discuss points of policy, but forgot their business and sat up 
 over Cicero and Homer till far into the night. Once after a 
 dinner-party at Pitt's the measured tones of the host andj the 
 witty sallies of Canning ceased, and the company turned 
 round to find them with their heads bent together over a 
 classic. Of all scholar-statesmen Canning was the most 
 elegant, learned and correct. This classical spirit moulded 
 that side of Canning's nature impenetrable to new ideas, which 
 rejected Reform in the sphere of politics and Romance in the 
 region of literature. The crude absurdities of the early 
 romanticists no doubt provoked censure, and the " Anti- 
 Jacobin "justly ridiculed the Schiller of the " Robbers " and the 
 Goethe of " Stella." But was Canning alive to the greatness 
 of " Wallenstein " or " Faust ? " He corresponded but had few 
 literary sympathies with de Stael and Chateaubriand. On 
 several occasions he stayed near Windermere and became 
 acquainted with the Lake poets. " What does Mr. Canning 
 know about modern poetry," said Wordsworth impatiently, 
 " though," he added, " you could not meet a cleverer man." 
 " Classic Canning " had praised the verses of both Byron and 
 Scott ; but he loved best the stately measure and resounding 
 line of Dr>'den, forgetting that in the hands of Pope and his 
 successors it became first metallic and monotonous, and then 
 intolerable. Scott was urged by him to attempt a poem in 
 the " Drydenic habit," which he did with miserable success. It 
 is, however, to the credit of Canning's taste that he preferred 
 Dryden to Pope, and Addison and Johnson to Junius, and 
 was catholic enough to love and appreciate both Moliere and 
 Ben Jonson, Shakspere and Dante. His own serious poems 
 with those of Rogers are the last relics of the old school, the 
 last slaves who danced in the fetters of its rigid conceits and 
 
248 Life of Canning 
 
 pedantic classicism. " The New Morality " is full of vigour 
 and has some splendid lines. Of other poems the lines to his 
 intended bride are dignified and stately, the epitaph on his 
 son has a tender pathos, whilst the fine verses on Nelson 
 were most esteemed by the author. But as a serious poet he 
 is far behind himself as a parodist and wit, where he attained 
 all but the highest rank. Yet he attached little importance 
 to his squibs and comic verses, which once written were flung 
 aside and forgotten. It is only because his verses are con- 
 cerned with political or ephemeral events that literature has 
 forgotten more of them than it should. He was in fact a 
 political Gilbert, and many happy and proverbial phrases 
 issued from his mint, as " The friend of every country but his 
 own," "The Friend of Humanity," "The Candid Friend," 
 ' Those who very little mean, but mean that little well.' If 
 men of genius create platitudes, and men of talent polish or 
 repeat them, his place is easily assigned. 
 
 The eighteenth century is the age of letter-writers, of the 
 cold and stately Pope, the elegant and epigrammatic Chester- 
 field, and the gay insouciant Walpole. To these models 
 Canning's letters are as unlike as possible, full of vigour and 
 wit, boisterous and exuberant, usually natural, easy, and un- 
 affected. A careful anthology, pruned of those dry details 
 and business matters over which ministers spend so many 
 quires, would be as interesting from a literary as from a 
 personal point of view. The usual prose style of Canning, 
 in the articles ' he is known to have written, is somewhat 
 disappointing, doubtless because in almost every case he was 
 assisted by others, so that his wit and eloquence have been 
 overwhelmed in the dust-storm of their commonplace. 
 Still they are not without touches of his peculiar humour 
 with its exuberant extravagance. In two Quarterly articles 
 on the currency question Canning makes as merciless fun of 
 Sir John Sinclair, a fiscal heretic, as ever he did of Vansittart 
 in the Commons. The passages are too long to quote but 
 are full of his buoyant and irresistible wit. In another he 
 satirizes Brougham, who had domineered over the Committee 
 of Education and mistranslated some of the college statutes 
 on which he had reported : " Ego et committeus meus had 
 applied ourselves with much attention to assist the legislature 
 in making a selection (of Fellows for a proposed College of 
 Inquiry into the state of Education.) It is even aiifirmed, we 
 
 * Recently identified in the Quarterly Review by Mr. J. A. R. Marriot. 
 
Characteristics 249 
 
 know not how truly, that with the help of the gentlemen of 
 the British Museum, the learned Institutor had actually con- 
 structed the statutes of his foundation in that language, of 
 which his late researches have made him so absolute a 
 master ; and that the oaths ... to be taken by each Fellow 
 upon his admission ran in something like the following terms ; 
 the first, ' se nunquam duo vel plura brevia intra biennium 
 accepisse ; ' the second of more awful import . . . ' se nullas 
 prorsus habere possessiones praeterquam unam purpuream 
 baggam flaccescentem omnino inanitatis causa.' Brougham 
 added that the College must not close their eyes to ' spiteful, 
 malignant and anonymous suggestions,' and Canning in a 
 spirit of exquisite raillery compares this to the Inquisition. 
 This article was so admired that Dr. Monck, who contributed 
 the substance, received a bishopric from the notice into which 
 it brought him, though none credited him with the wit. But 
 though thus making fun of Brougham's crude suggestions, 
 Canning was not one of those narrow and pedantic Tories 
 who held the monstrous doctrines thus defined by Praed : — 
 
 " Oh let them not babble of Greek to the rabble 
 Nor teach the mechanics their letters, 
 The labouring classes were born to be asses, 
 And not to be aping their betters." 
 
 He believed in and argued for the provision of a gradual 
 system of national education, by an extension and subsidiza- 
 tion of the schools then in existence. 
 
 Only one out of seven contributions displays his literary 
 talent to its fullest extent. The Article on " Austrian State 
 Papers" (Quarterly, May, 1809) is one of the best of our 
 political essays, presenting the case against Napoleon in 
 language full of eloquence, dignity and prophetic significance. 
 Nowhere else will be found in so short a compass so admirable 
 a summary of English policy, save perhaps in the famous 
 despatches. Many of these were copied in Canning's own 
 clear, bold, elegant hand, for he loved to write his own 
 despatches as Michael Angelo loved to hew out his own 
 statues. If these despatches have any faults they betray a 
 slight impatience, an anxiety to vanquish rather than to humour 
 an adversary. But these errors have been exaggerated and 
 are chiefly confined to his first period of office. Of these 
 early efforts witty Tom Moore said he wished Pye (the 
 Laureate) and the foreign Secretary would exchange places, 
 because then there would be more prose in the despatches, 
 and certainly more poetry in the birthday odes. This was 
 
 16 
 
250 Life of Canning 
 
 cruel for the State -paper style is certainly less ornate and 
 florid than that of the orations, and is often exquisite in its 
 finish and precision of phrase. Great dialectical skill, which 
 never for a moment obscures the meaning, is united to an 
 incomparable exposition of detail. Their masterly grasp of 
 principles and exalted and manly sentiments make some of 
 these despatches the noblest State papers in the language. 
 Though he spent hours in refining his sentences and smooth- 
 ing his periods, Canning was no artist of empty phrases. 
 Beneath the eloquence lay the soundest and most practical 
 system of Statesmanship. He was no mere Addison or Mat 
 Prior, and though he may have been always the most literary 
 of statesmen he was never only the most statesmanlike of 
 litterateurs. His despatches are as truly the classics of 
 foreign policy as Stowell's judgments are classics of inter- 
 national law. 
 
 English oratory declined during Canning's later years and 
 he was left — like Ben Jonson — to prolong to another age the 
 unfaded lustre of a great literary tradition. New conditions 
 and demands, transforming the whole character of the age, 
 had arisen and influenced every art — including that of oratory. 
 — " Speaking in the Commons," Canning told Rush, " must 
 take conversation for its basis." A studious or formal arrange- 
 ment of parts — exordia perorations and so forth was out of 
 place. But method and arrangement were indispensable and 
 everywhere you must aim at reasoning, while, " if you would 
 be eloquent you might at any time, but never at any appointed 
 time." Burke and Windham would not have approved these 
 maxims, which show how accurately Canning had gauged the 
 changing temper of the times. He would drop into the 
 lobbies to pick up the general sense and opinions, but he 
 forgot that the success of a speech, appealing only to the 
 reason, depends on its being intelligible to the stupidest man 
 in the House. As Coleridge said, " Canning should put on the 
 asses skin before he enters Parliament." Had he condescended 
 to be dull or forgotten to be witty, had his ideas of conversa- 
 tion conformed to those of the ordinary man, his loss as an 
 orator would have far more than balanced his gain as a Parlia- 
 mentary leader. 
 
 But where contemporaries thus saw blemishes, posterity has 
 discovered patches of the true imperial purple. Here Canning 
 resembled another great orator Burke, though the audience of 
 the latter was exclusively confined to the press and the future. 
 Brougham and Pitt, Gladstone and Fox are now almost 
 
Characteristics 251 
 
 unreadable, save for a few great efforts, just because their 
 utterances were so appropriate to the moment and the 
 audience. It is Canning's supreme merit to have had a 
 practical grasp of the questions before him, but never to have 
 neglected the larger horizon beyond. His speeches are, if 
 anything, more filled with broad principles than successful 
 parliamentary orations should be. Profounder maxims of 
 State policy can be collected from his speeches than from 
 anyone except Burke, and Burke never led and never could 
 have led the Commons. Nor is any style on the whole less 
 diffuse or more lively, none certainly is more clear and lucid 
 whether in argument or statement. Lord Holland called 
 him " the first logician in Europe," and he is undoubtedly the 
 most systematic and precise of English orators. The illustra- 
 tions, the banter, the epigrams, which dazzled and blinded 
 his audience, served only to obscure the firm and compact 
 outlines of the logical structure. Fragments and notes of 
 speeches show that the form and scheme was most carefully 
 prepared, but that the happiest phrases and flashes of wit were 
 either impromptus or at any rate not painfully elaborated like 
 those of Sheridan. Creevey called him the " Merry-man or 
 the Joker," and in Parliamentary wit he excelled Disraeli and 
 rivalled Sheridan. The lightning of his ridicule flashed even 
 amid the thunder of denunciation. Nor are the well-known 
 the sole or even the best examples of his wit * many are 
 buried beneath the dreary masses of Hansard in speeches 
 he did not care to reprint. Boisterous almost boyish humour, 
 sustained banter, savage sarcasm and invective were all alike 
 at command. He held a thrust was the best parry, and after 
 piercing his opponent he had no objection to scalping him. 
 For years he had never made a speech without making an 
 enemy, and while sometimes their resentment was justified 
 their hostility was always assured. 
 
 A strain of coarseness is often present, and his taste is 
 emphatically not that of to-day, though with years and 
 responsibility his wit grew more genial and kind. Thus 
 Copley (Lyndhurst) made a speech which he borrowed 
 largely from a pamphlet of Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter. 
 Canning replied by quoting from the popular song ; 
 
 " Dear Tom, this brown jug which now foams with mild ale, 
 
 Out of which I now drink to sweet Nan of the Vale, 
 
 Was once Toby Phillpotts P 
 No one could do anything but laugh at this good-natured 
 
 * V. a speech on an utterly obscure subject inimitable in wit and 
 sarcasm in Hans, Deb. Feb. 11, 1813. 
 
252 Life of Canning 
 
 banter. When Canning wrote to Copley a month after to ask 
 him to join his ministry he added ' Philpotto non obstante.' 
 But perhaps the best example is to be found in the 
 famous passage on Lord Nugent, who had gone as a volunteer 
 to Spain, and who was as clearly related in person as in 
 pedigree to the " phat Duke " of Buckingham. " About the 
 middle of last July (1823) the heavy Falmouth coach was 
 observed to proceed to its destination with more than its 
 wonted gravity. The coach contained two passengers ; the 
 one a fair lady of no considerable dimensions ; the other a 
 gentleman who was about to carry the succour of his person 
 to the struggling patriots in Spain. It was laden .... with 
 a box of most portentous magnitude. Whether this box, like 
 the flying chest of the conjuror, possessed any supernatural 
 qualities of locomotion I am quite unable to determine ; but 
 of this I am most credibly informed .... that this extra- 
 ordinary box contained a full uniform of a Spanish general 
 of light cavalry, together with a helmet scarcely inferior in 
 size to the celebrated helmet in the Castle of Otranto. The 
 idea of going to the relief of a fortress blockaded by sea and 
 besieged by land, in a full suit of light horseman's equipment 
 was, perhaps, not strictly consonant to modern military opera- 
 tions .... When the gentleman and his box had made 
 their appearance, the Cortes no doubt were overwhelmed 
 with joy, and rubbed their hands with delight at the approach 
 of the long promised aid (of 10,000 men). That aid did come, 
 but it came in the sense and in no other, which was described 
 by the witty Duke of Buckingham, whom the noble lord 
 opposite numbered among his ancestors. In the play of the 
 " Rehearsal," there is a scene occupied with the designs of 
 the two kings of Brentford, to whom one of their party 
 entering says : — 
 
 " The army's at the door but in disguise 
 Entreats a word of both your Majesties." 
 • • ■ Things were at that juncture moving rapidly to their 
 final issue. How far the noble lord conduced to the termina- 
 tion, by plumping his weight into the sinking scale of the 
 Cortes, was too nice a question for him (Mr. Canning) just 
 now to determine." Wilberforce went home crying with 
 laughter after this sally and Lord Nugent himself was delighted 
 This speech will illustrate how his wit diverted from the sub- 
 ject in hand. Few of the ponderous squires who listened to it 
 understood its lessons on international law. They heard only 
 the jokes about Lord Nugent and did not realize that he, in his 
 
Characteristics 253 
 
 own person, was " a most enormous breach of neutrality." Can- 
 ning was often as great in reply as in a set speech. His extra- 
 ordinary memory and profound knowledge of history enabled 
 him to answer with a readiness that confounded his opponents, 
 who knew how carefully he sometimes prepared his speeches. 
 Brougham was of all orators the best supplied with the facts 
 and the knowledge of the moment, yet none can read the 
 speeches of the two and not perceive that Canning always 
 has the advantage in the larger aspects, and often in the most 
 technical points. Is it a question of the probable success of 
 a coup de main at Antwerp? He is at once ready with 
 accounts of the failure of Conde at Lerida, the success of 
 Peterborough at Monjuich and countless other instances. Is 
 it a question of Reform ? He discusses methods of electioneer- 
 ing under Henry VI. and Charles II. and the democratic ideals 
 of the Puritans. Is it a question of finance ? To show the 
 power of the Crown to control the currency he quotes from 
 Matthew Hale and Blackstone, and sketches the monetary 
 systems from Henry III. to George III. What impromptu 
 retort was ever happier than * this, in reply to the accusation 
 that he had deserted the policy of Pitt ! — " It is singular to 
 remark how ready some people are to admire in a great man 
 the exception rather than the rule of his conduct. Such 
 perverse worship is like the idolatry of barbarous nations, who 
 can see the noonday splendour of the sun without emotion 
 but who, when he is in eclipse, come forward with bells and 
 cymbals to adore him." 
 
 The style was sometimes florid and over-elegant, brilliantly 
 coloured but scentless like tropic flowers it seemed nurtured 
 in an unhealthy soil and air. The speeches were so often 
 corrected and altered for publication that the original force 
 and vigour were impaired. The result of this care was not 
 the polish, which reveals new beauties in the depths of a 
 jewel, but rather like the enamel which obscures and overlays 
 the purity of the metal on which it is placed. But humour 
 corrected this excessive sensibility and fastidiousness, and at 
 its best his style was characterized by grace rising towards 
 dignity. His great versatility was shown in the two Currency 
 Speeches, superior in lucidity and interest even to Gladstone's 
 famous Budgets, in the speech on the conduct of the Duke of 
 York (1810) which showed the subtlety of an advocate and the 
 impartiality of a judge, and in the famous addresses at 
 Liverpool and Plymouth, in which he alone of the old school 
 *Feb. 24. 1826. 
 
254 ^if^ °f Canning 
 
 of orators swayed and captivated masses of people by the 
 magic of his eloquence. A little known passage will show 
 the uniform excellence of his serious style. It is from a 
 speech on the Windsor Establishment for King George 
 the Third. Nothing is more pathetic in English history 
 than to regard this monarch in his old age, to see the 
 most self-willed and courageous of men deprived of reason 
 and authority at the moment of his own and England's 
 triumph. The poor, mad, blind old King, his long white 
 beard falling on his purple robe, his star as in mockery still 
 gleaming on his breast, wanders from room to room at 
 Windsor now muttering of " America " and " the Church," 
 now listening like Saul of old to music that haply the evil spirit 
 may depart from him. Very gently did Canning touch on 
 His Majesty's '' present melancholy and secluded condition," 
 
 — " all nature left a blank. 
 
 And knowledge at one entrance quite shut out," 
 
 a ruin, it is true, but a venerable ruin . . . "scathed by 
 Heaven's lightning," but consecrated as much as blasted by 
 the blow, he yet exhibited to the awe and veneration of man- 
 kind a mighty monument of strength and majesty in decay. 
 He stood, like the oak of the poet stripped of that luxuriant 
 foliage, and spreading those denuded arms, which have afforded 
 shelter to successive generations, 
 
 " E trunco non frondibus efficit umbram." 
 
 Brougham, speaking of his oratory, said Canning was an 
 actor though an incomparable one. Wilberforce said he never 
 drew you to him in spite of yourself and always had the 
 classic air of an orator addressing posterity. Both Chatham 
 and Mirabeau were thought actors by many contemporaries, 
 — and we must therefore suspect such evidence. Did Canning 
 indeed lack that note of absolute conviction and sincerity 
 which, even more than lofty political ideal or exquisite style, 
 marks the great orator ? His speeches, as written, sometimes 
 give the impression of mere rhetoric from their rigidly com- 
 plete form and their excessive nicety of diction. But orations 
 will always seem cold and lifeless in print, and Canning's 
 speeches were much altered for publication. Stapleton has 
 proved Canning's deep earnestness and fervour to the 
 satisfaction of the impartial. Some days before each great 
 speech he was feverish and anxious, after its delivery he 
 was faint and exhausted with passion. When he uttered that 
 most famous of all his phrases, that conceit almost sublime in 
 
Characteristics 255 
 
 its audacity, " I called the New World into existence to redress 
 the balance of the Old," his voice rose almost to a scream. 
 A contemporary says — " I shall never forget the deep moral 
 earnestness of his tone ... he seemed to have increased in 
 statue his attitude was so majestic ... his chest heaved, his 
 nostrils dilated, a noble pride slightly curved his lips, and age 
 and sickness were dissolved and forgotten in the ardour of 
 youthful genius ; all the while a serenity sat upon his brow 
 that pointed to deeds of glory." The effect was extraordinary, 
 for a moment there was a silence, even a smile upon some 
 faces, then suddenly the atmosphere grew electric. Members 
 leapt to their feet as one man and cheer upon cheer was 
 echoed back from the roof-tree. " The Speech," said Lord 
 Monteagle who heard it, "was one of the great oratorical 
 successes of the century." At times Canning could rise to 
 the highest levels and the torrent of nature and passion thus 
 swept away art and reason in its impetuous flood. Wilber- 
 force's final judgment was that as an orator Canning on the 
 whole surpassed Pitt and Fox. Byron who had heard all the 
 great speakers except Pitt said — "I never heard any who 
 fulfilled my ideal of an orator, but Canning is sometimes very 
 like one," and in verse he called him 
 
 ' Our last, our best, our only orator ! ' 
 In England no one has a supreme and unquestioned sway, 
 for although Sheridan made the greatest speech he was cer- 
 tainly not the greatest orator. Bolingbroke has perished, 
 Chatham lives only in a few immortal sentences. Canning is 
 inferior only to Fox, Gladstone and perhaps Brougham as a 
 debater, and he surpassed them in clearness, versatility, art of 
 statement and grasp of principle. In literary eloquence he 
 easily distanced every great parliamentary leader, and main- 
 tained a level as high and more uniform than even such men 
 as Plunket, 'Grattan, or Windham, the professed devotees of 
 the elegant simile and the felicitous phrase. Canning's words 
 upon the character of Pitt are the best judgment and criticism 
 of his own oratory ; " it had qualities rare in their separate 
 excellence, wonderful in their mutual combination." 
 
 In personal advantages, which so enhance the efect of 
 oratory. Canning was highly favoured. His stature was tall 
 and commanding, his gestures easy and graceful, his voice if 
 somewhat thin and shrill yet admirably adapted for intona- 
 tions of invective, sarcasm, or scorn. His portraits in youth 
 show a pale oval face and regular features, of which the 
 expression is vivacious and daring though tinged with 
 
256 Life of Canning 
 
 melancholy. Though very handsome he hardly looks the 
 statesman, and resembles rather a Count D'Orsay or a 
 Byronic dandy. In the later portraits we see the real man. 
 The brow is broad and lofty, and lined with thought and care, 
 the eyes are dark and penetrating, the full eloquent lips are 
 those of the orator, but the firm set of the mouth and the 
 strong jaw show the qualities of resolution and command. 
 The impression of vanity, self-esteem and impatience is re- 
 deemed by a suggestion of humour. There is not the 
 majesty of Chatham, the rugged strength of Cromwell, or the 
 overmastering power and passion of Bismarck or Napoleon. 
 Acute insight, delicacy of apprehension, fineness of judgment 
 are common to the portraits both of Canning and Richelieu. 
 These are the subtle lines written upon the visage of a great 
 diplomatist-statesman, so unlike the scars and furrows which 
 mark the faces of the great conquerors and heroes of history. 
 Those who heard only the practised orator or accomplished 
 wit little guessed the real kindness of heart or depth of 
 feeling beneath the polished surface. Canning's kindness to 
 poor Sheridan has been mentioned, but there are many more 
 instances. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe tells us how a poor 
 unacknowledged relation applied to him for help when he 
 was a young man supported only by his small patrimony. 
 Canning had no ready money but gave his servant a portion 
 of his clothes and his watch that they might be sold to meet 
 the appeal. On another occasion in the midst of his cares he 
 wrote to Gififord, Editor of the Quarterly, to say he had read an 
 able article by one David Robinson and asking his corres- 
 pondent to engage him. "I hear he is very poor," adds* the 
 good natured Foreign Secretary. It is surely unexampled for 
 a great minister, always the object of countless petitions and 
 appeals, to spare time to plead unsolicited to a magazine 
 Editor, on behalf of an obscure youth whom he does not 
 personally know ! He once wrote to Lord Granville at Paris, 
 "do not let poor Sir Sidney (Smith) starve or go to prison. 
 If I were at the Admiralty I would give him a post, "but I 
 think Melville could not keep him in order. He instructs 
 Granville to give him money, though without mentioning its 
 source, and adds kindly " say something good-natured to him 
 from me." Wellington and Aberdeen afterwards refused the 
 Admiral's application for a post or a pension, one of the 
 
 * Stapleton Correspondence I. 129. 320. Canning assisted Gifford himself 
 with money in 1826, no wonder his estate at his death was only between 5 
 and 6000 pounds I 
 
Characteristics 257 
 
 grounds being that Canning had done nothing for him ! 
 Another incident shows Canning in a yet finer light. When 
 Castlereagh died Lord ClanwiOiam, the under Foreign 
 Secretary, who thought it consistent with loyalty to the dead 
 man to hate Canning, resigned and announced his intention 
 of going abroad. Canning asked Planta what post he 
 thought Clanwilliam would take, and meeting him shortly 
 afterwards at a reception, drew him aside into the window. 
 He began to press different posts upon him with the utmost 
 eagerness, and finally burst into tears, remembering Clan- 
 william* "as the only person to whom he could for 
 Castlereagh's sake be kind." In general his charity was 
 liberal yet discriminating, and sometimes when he could not 
 give by a still harder generosity he would with delicate 
 courtesy reply with a full explanation of the causes which 
 rendered it impracticable. As a patron of literature Can- 
 ning was noticeable, though he, like those other great states- 
 men Burke, Chatham and Fox, was notoriously unskilled in 
 music. He had little taste in art but appreciated the talent of 
 Gillray, the greatest and most Hogarthian of caricaturists. He 
 corresponded with him, praised some designs and suggested 
 others, and forbade Gillray t to publish a cartoon which too 
 mercilessly satirized "poor Sherry." Gillray declared how 
 much he valued his good opinion and patronage, and was 
 almost always favourable to Canning in his sketches. Can- 
 ning was a generous patron of letters. He aided Southey, 
 Scott, Coleridge and Wordsworth, and secured the success of 
 Mackintosh's famous lectures on " the Law of Nature and 
 Nations." He created by his active exertions the Royal 
 Institution of Liverpool. " The Quarterly " was founded ac- 
 cording to his plans, and enlivened by his contributions. He 
 subscribed liberally to the Literary Fund Club, for the relief 
 of poor and distressed authors. On one famous occasion 
 he and Chateaubriand met at a banquet of this club, where, 
 says the latter, " we drank a toast to the memory of Homer 
 singing his versies for a morsel of bread." In private as in 
 public life, Canning was the friend and patron of the poor and 
 oppressed, and within his means no man was more generous. 
 Foul contemporary slanders whispered that Canning was 
 a professional politician lavish only with public money and 
 
 * Letters and journals of W. Cory, p. 174. 
 
 tv. Correspondence of Canning and Gillray B.M. Add. MSS. 27,337. 
 Pitt had before vainly tried to checlc Gillray's violence. 
 
258 Life of Canning 
 
 liberal only to his kindred. Towards his poor mother he 
 always showed the tenderest devotion, as well as to his half- 
 brother, for whom he secured a captain's commission. The 
 coarseness of libellers could hardly pass over these oppor- 
 tunities. " For his near and dear relatives," wrote Sidney 
 Smith, " every man in the kingdom pays his twopence 
 or threepence a year ... I have no idea that the Sophias 
 and Carolines of any man breathing are to eat national 
 veal, to drink public tea and to wear Treasury 
 ribands." In fact Canning's poor and much-slandered 
 mother was never on the Pension-List, but Canning accepted 
 a sinecure of ;^500 a year on resigning his under-secretaryship 
 as Ministers now receive a pension on retiring from office. 
 His enemies computed that he had during his life obtained 
 £6o,o<X) from the Government for twenty years ' service. * 
 Pitt for the same period, though indeed with higher office, 
 received ;^200,ooo. Much of Canning's official income was 
 spent in repairing the Lisbon Embassy, in rebuilding and 
 enlarging the Foreign Office and in entertaining diplomatic 
 guests. As his own patrimony and his wife's fortune were 
 greatly impaired, and as he was never charged with parade 
 or splendour, it is fair to assume that a good deal of his 
 private income went in the public service. But in any case 
 it is impossible to declare him grasping or excessive either in 
 his demands or rewards. 
 
 That union of simplicity and subtlety, of emotion and 
 imagination, which build up true wit and humour, tend also — 
 though under different circumstances — towards the formation 
 of the religious spirit. Canning believed sincerely and deeply 
 in the fundamental truths of Christianity, by whose beauty 
 and sublimity his heart and imagination were impressed. 
 His religion was not paraded like that of Eldon, and was 
 therefore the more sincere and earnest. Wilberforce tells us 
 how he once went with Canning to hear a sermon from the 
 eloquent Dr. Chalmers, and that he noticed with surprise the 
 deep emotion of his friend and how his eyes often filled with 
 tears. No man was less of a bigot than Canning as he 
 
 *This estimate does not include Pitt's salary as Warden of the Cinque 
 Ports. Exclusive of all pensions, sinecures, etc., Canning's official in- 
 comes on the present scale would be over /5o,ooo — reckoning the 
 salary of President of the Board of Control at £1000 which is probably 
 an under-estimate ; his salary as under Foreign secretary was only ^500 
 as compared with .£1500 to-day. Few will therefore blame him for 
 accepting the sinecure of £loo yearly to eke out his official income. 
 
Characteristics 259 
 
 shewed on other questions besides that of Emancipation. 
 He openly described the Athanasian creed as "a human 
 document," refusing to accept its damnatory clauses in spite 
 of shocked and lengthy remonstrances from Dr. Phillpotts. 
 So strict were his principles that he playfully calls it a 
 heinous crime to pen despatches on Good Friday. Prayers 
 were read by him every day to his household, and as Foreign 
 Secretary he exerted himself to provide chaplains and 
 churches at the chief ports of call for English vessels. 
 During his last illness, exclamations of " Oh, my God! My 
 God 1 " were frequently wrung from him by the intensity of 
 pain. " You do right," *said Dr. Farre, " to call upon your 
 God, I hope you pray to him in secret ? " "I do, I do " was 
 the answer. " And you ask for mercy and salvation through 
 the merits of your Redeemer ? " " Yes," replied the dying 
 man, " through the merits of Jesus Christ." As with Crom- 
 well and many another it needed the supreme moment of the 
 death agony to lay bare the inmost thoughts and convictions 
 of the soul. 
 
 In his youth, Canning without parents and with the bitterest 
 memories of childhood, was thrust into a society as licentious 
 as brilliant, with Sheridan and Fox for his mentors and 
 models. No wonder that his blameless morality excited the 
 admiration of Wilberforce. The age was not only one of free 
 living but of coarse drinking, a vice which afflicted not only 
 Bohemians like " poor Sherry," but such models of propriety 
 as Pitt, Sidmouth and Grey. The love of wine did not 
 prevent Alexander from ruling the world, but it seriously 
 hampered the deliberations of many English Cabinets. 
 As late as 1828, the Chancellor decided that in future the 
 Cabinet must not meet after dinner as they were inclined to 
 be too sleepy and quarrelsome ! Canning was no despiser of 
 the pleasures of the table and he suffered from gout in later 
 years through lack of exercise and air. But from anything 
 like these excesses he was wholly free, and his relative sobriety 
 and absolute purity of life amid such surroundings are 
 indications of value for showing the sincerity and strength of 
 his character. His courage was as undeniable as his in- 
 dependence, and was proved on many occasions. Charles 
 Ellis woke him at one o'clock on the morning of the famous 
 duel, to tell him the time at which it had been fixed. Canning 
 turned round and slept till five o'clock when he got up. " In 
 
 * Stapleton G. C. and his times p. 604. 
 
26o Life of Canning 
 
 what a tranquil and delightful state of mind," writes * Planta, 
 " he must have been in to have slept quietly at such a time." 
 On another occasion he wrote secretly to the anonymous 
 author of a pamphlet to inform him " that he was a slanderer 
 and a liar and wanted courage only to be an assassin." His 
 friends afterwards remarked that he had never been more 
 gay and careless than at the very moment he was expecting 
 an answer to this in the form of a challenge. The author 
 dared not reveal his identity, but is believed to have been 
 Hobhouse, who afterwards pronounced a warm eulogy on 
 Canning's foreign policy and character. The incident made 
 some impression, for when Canning summoned Sir Francis 
 Burdett for an explanation of some expressions, it was 
 afforded with the utmost eagerness. 
 
 How are we to account for the general attitude of suspicion, 
 distrust or disfavour to Canning which pervades most of the 
 diaries and memoirs and much of contemporary opinion? 
 Was he in fact the intriguer who could not take a cup of tea 
 without a stratagem ? It is not to be denied that parts of 
 his public conduct are greatly open to question. The assaults 
 upon Addington were often in the worst taste and savoured 
 something of pettiness and malice, but the case was so extra- 
 ordinary and Pitt's attitude so peculiar that Canning's actions 
 can hardly be called intrigues. The worst part of his public 
 career is really the time of his factious opposition to " All the 
 talents." The special question of Castlereagh in 1 809 is on the 
 whole in his favour, for he seems vigorously to have protested 
 against the secrecy enjoined by the weakness of Portland and 
 the reluctance of Camden. In the negotiations of 1809-12 he 
 displayed much self-seeking and ambition, but he neither 
 disguised his attitude nor ultimate aims. His conduct in 1827 
 seems to have been straightforward and honest though by no 
 means disinterested. But these different transactions have a 
 cumulative effect and demand a full explanation. A veil of 
 secrecy and mystery overhung all these proceedings and in 
 the age of Thurlow, Loughborough, Dundas, and Perceval a 
 prominent politician without a great name was likely to be 
 thought an unscrupulous adventurer. Canning was often 
 histrionic and passionate and always sensitive, so anxious to 
 explain and defend, that the public thought there was really 
 much requiring explanation. It cannot be denied that his 
 subtlety occasionally led him into something like casuistry 
 
 * Poole, Life Stratford Canning, I. 74. 
 
Characteristics 261 
 
 and evasion, but * the conclusion must be that he was in the 
 main sincere and honest. And whatever the judgment on 
 his private conduct, that his management of our foreign 
 policy was characterised by the most sincere even Quixotic 
 love of truth and principle even his enemies must admit. 
 Most of his difficulties in fact arose from independence and a 
 steadfast adherence to principles not fully accepted by either 
 party, and hence the jealous fear entertained of his genius 
 and ability. If Mr. Gladstone with a small but resolutely 
 independent following became an object of hatred and 
 suspicion to both parties for twenty years after 1846, how 
 easy is it to understand the attitude of Whigs and Tories to 
 Canning, without imputing to him base or dishonourable 
 motives? It was this firm conviction of the truth of his 
 principles, this disinclination to compromise or yield his own 
 views, which rendered Canning of all great parliamentary 
 leaders the least skilled in party tactics and arts of manage- 
 ment. In philosophic grasp and expression of political ideas 
 he has been surpassed only by Burke, but the Tories as a 
 whole refused to follow him though he so steadfastly opposed 
 Reform. Peel simply adopting his ideas was able therewith 
 to regenerate and liberalise the old Tory party, and his 
 success was almost solely due to his personal qualities. But 
 Canning was too hasty, excitable and irritable for the petty 
 negotiations in the formation of a ministry. He readily 
 showed his contempt for men less clever than himself, 
 " the invincible and innumerable army of fools " was always 
 marshalled against him. The real moderation of his views 
 was masked by the passion of his manner, he appeared to 
 dictate revolutionary proposals when he advanced modest 
 views. An amusing instance of this is found in Lord 
 Malmesbury, who records in his Diary of 1807 that Canning, 
 who had just been made Foreign Secretary, is not yet a 
 statesman, and hints that he has been prematurely forced. 
 A few pages further on he is extolling Canning's instructions 
 and despatches as " incomparable," and giving extravagant 
 praise. Canning was not always without tact as he showed 
 in his control of the Lisle negotiations, as President of the 
 Board of Control, and in his coalition with the Whigs in 1827. 
 
 * The men who really knew him best testify to this. Sir Robert Wilson, 
 Planta, Hookham Frere, Lord Holland, Stapleton, Stratford Canning and 
 Newton are all his strong advocates. No men knew more or as much of 
 the secret workings of Canning's mind, and, of these, Frere and Stapleton 
 are alone really prejudiced in his favour. 
 
262 Life of Canning 
 
 But in general he trusted too much to the ascendancy of 
 genius, and thought it beneath him to be conciliatory or 
 pliant. There was a vein of coarseness in his composition as 
 well as a violence of manner which displeased many. On 
 one occasion he compared the conduct of Lord Folkestone to 
 that of a drunken helot. Such an odious instance of bad 
 taste explains why one contemporary said " Canning could 
 never be a gentleman for three hours together." Where the 
 political and social world were almost identical such personal 
 defects or insults had much influence. 
 
 After succeeding to the lead in the Commons in 1822 
 Canning forbore to use the scalping knife, though he would 
 keep up a whispered commentary on the debate to Sir T. 
 Fowell Buxton, which would have convulsed the House had 
 they heard it. But the old fury flamed out when Brougham 
 declared " he (Mr. Canning) had exhibited in his own person 
 the most incredible specimen of monstrous truckling that the 
 history of political tergiversation could furnish." " I rise to 
 say that this is false ! " cried Canning in a voice of thunder. 
 The provocation was gross but so was the denial, and both 
 members were ordered into the custody of the Sergeant till 
 Brougham explained away his words, according to the 
 Pickwickian sense, and the incident closed. But it illustrated 
 how far Canning was from possessing the calm and inflexible 
 patience of the ideal leader of the Commons. But though thus 
 sensitive, irritable and sometimes violent, there was nothing 
 petty or mean or spiteful in his composition. Just after Scott 
 had written the letters of Malachi Malagrowther, which greatly 
 damaged the Government and hindered their currency 
 measures, he bestirred himself to get the King to befriend the 
 great novelist in his pecuniary troubles. When James Mill 
 the great Radical applied for an examinership in the Civil 
 Service of the East India Company the Tories implored 
 Canning to refuse his application. Canning declared that 
 radicalism was no hindrance to a man being a good examiner 
 and gave him the post. Then again he used every effort to 
 reinstate his old but Radical friend Sir Robert Wilson in his 
 command, from which he had been dismissed for the extra- 
 ordinary offence of stopping a riot and dispersing a crowd. 
 These slight traits mark the great man and show his lofty 
 indifference to the more sordid aspects of party politics. 
 
 His personal character does much to explain his political 
 successes and failures. His partial acquiescence in older 
 literary and religious tendencies compares with that strange 
 
Characteristics 263 
 
 mixture of liberality and caution, which made him advocate 
 Emancipation and oppose Eeform. His fancy and wit show 
 how superficiality came to be charged against him as a fault, 
 whilst his independent conduct in private life throws a flash 
 upon his political consistency. His chivalry and generosity, 
 combined with a sensitive pride and ambition, do much to 
 enlighten the dark parts of his career — to show why he resigned 
 with Pitt and disbanded his followers in 18 13, why he accepted 
 office in 1816, and retired from it in 1820. His success at the 
 Foreign Office is explained by the depth and power of his 
 mind and character. The most prominent of all his gifts was 
 an almost miraculous quickness of apprehension and insight. 
 He saw everything in a flash, he divined the weak point of 
 an opponent or a policy in a second. He had a mind capable 
 of forming great generalisations and large systems of policy, 
 and yet of applying them in minute detail. No one ever gave 
 a more brilliant example of mingled concentration and 
 detachment* as Canning, when he dictated to three secretaries 
 at once three despatches on totally different subjects, and 
 kept each one writing as fast as pen could drive. To keep 
 two secretaries thus employed was an ordinary almost a 
 normal exercise of Canning's powers, for his thoughts flowed 
 too fast for a single pen to register them. He worked with 
 twenty-horse power and his extraordinary industry and 
 knowledge served only to sharpen and increase this perceptive 
 power. By its aid he saw into the minds and divined the 
 motives of Alexander, Metternich, Chateaubriand. He played 
 on their fears and their ambitions, and turned both to the 
 advantage of England. 
 
 The great qualities of his intellect were balanced by an 
 equal strength of character. He was often indeed too over- 
 bearing and masterful, liking to oversee every detail not only 
 in his own office but elsewhere. But it may be questioned 
 whether the personal Staff" of the Foreign Office or the 
 embassies was ever more admirably organized or carefully 
 supervised than by him. Before his timet secrets were often 
 almost openly sold to foreign courts, the messengers were idle, 
 careless and talkative, it was not even safe to circulate Cabinet 
 memoranda. All this he soon altered, the leakage of secrets 
 was stopped, expenses cut down, abuses checked, pensions 
 and salaries examined and even details carefully supervised. 
 
 * Napoleon is said, on dubious authority, to have once accomplished 
 this marvellous feat. 
 
 t Malmesbury IV. 380. 
 
264 Life of Canning 
 
 A single instance will illustrate at once his minute attention 
 to business and kindness of heart. Learning that the porter 
 at our Paris embassy had died leaving a destitute wife, Canning 
 at once assigned to her a small pension. Small wonder that, 
 though all were hardworked, his subordinates from Planta down 
 to the meanest messenger almost worshipped the chief who 
 worked harder than them all. The ambassadors were kept 
 to their work as rigidly as the clerks, some were rebuked for 
 not sending full reports or good information, others censured 
 or recalled for exceeding their powers. But though so rigorous 
 and exacting Canning never discouraged an initiative which 
 produced good results. Frere, Jackson, Stratford Canning 
 and Garlike all on occasion were independent, and all 
 received warm praise for their actions. Canning was entirely 
 free from red-tape and routine, from that worship of forms 
 which binds and hampers ministerial action. The famous 
 rhyming despatch to Bagot and the " padlock " to Strangford 
 are but the two best instances of that wit, which often illumined 
 even the driest and most formal of his communications. Old 
 stagers were shocked at this incorrigible jesting, but humour 
 isone of the greatestgifts of statesmanship. The mild wiggings 
 he administered to the dilatory Frere and Granville for slack- 
 ness in official duties gained considerably in point and em- 
 phasis from their unwonted style of reproof His refusal to 
 take the united deputation of the Allies seriously, when they 
 called in a body to demand A'Court's dismissal, averted a 
 grave situation. His humour also did something to make 
 palatable his extensive ambition and insatiable desire for rule 
 and influence. Ward speaks of Canning's " ever-active mind 
 presiding over everything, anticipating difficulties, providing 
 against contingencies or suggesting expeditions, now beseech- 
 ing for a delay in the deputation of some dangerous foreign 
 agent, now arranging for the scattering on the coast of France 
 some ingeniously constructed state paper." It was this resolve 
 to be first, to preside over all departments, that for a time 
 effected his ruin, as it had that of Chatham, and deprived his 
 country of his inestimable services at a time of need. But 
 though personally less ambitious in later years, he adhered 
 as firmly to his political convictions which he forced upon his 
 colleagues. The man who influenced the jealous and sus- 
 picious Castlereagh, who so often overcame the opposition of 
 both Wellington and Eldon, must have had a will of iron. 
 The ascendancy he acquired over his fickle and unstable 
 sovereign is another proof. Over Rush and Clay he had 
 
Characteristics 265 
 
 exercised extraordinary influence, Clay yielded to him in 
 almost everything, Rush openly regretted that his Home- 
 Government could not agree with Canning. The Czar Nicholas 
 and even Charles the Tenth himself acknowledged the same 
 potent spell. Throughout Europe his influence and authority 
 were so great just because all men knew that he never 
 threatened or remonstrated in vain. The vigour and the 
 courage with which he upheld morality in politics was only 
 equalled by the practical success of his policy. Cool judg- 
 ment, sincerity of purpose, strength of will, quickness of eye 
 and sureness of touch, these qualities distinguished his foreign 
 policy as well as his private character, and " if he continued 
 to be a lover of fame he also passionately loved the glory of 
 his country." 
 
 Marvellous indeed must have been the abilities which raised 
 Canning from the humblest station and enabled him to excel 
 almost all Englishstatesmen in sheer brilliancy of wit and intel- 
 lect. But the extraordinary powers of his mind are best seen 
 by his union of the most opposite characteristics. The 
 minister of the Crown could be the servant of the people, the 
 opponent of aristocratic pretensions could yet be the opponent 
 of Reform. The foreign minister, whose policy was always 
 that of peace, was more feared than the minister always 
 storming for war. The statesman who exalted the fame of 
 England secured the tranquillity of the world. The soundest 
 and most practical of statesmen could yet be the accomplished 
 scholar, the wit, the man of letters. If haughty, irritable, and 
 ambitious, he was also genial, unassuming and good-natured. 
 The most wicked of wits was yet the most chivalrous and 
 sensitive of men. It is this diversity of gifts, this meeting of 
 contradictions that is the charm and the riddle of his nature, 
 which defies the application of ordinary canons and makes us 
 admit with Frere, that " Canning's character is not a theme 
 for prose." But however noble and disinterested we may 
 deem his public conduct, however admirable his private life, 
 however dazzling his wit or oratory, his real claim to greatness 
 must rest upon his foreign policy. Greatness has many sides 
 and many aspects, Adam Smith was great because he dis- 
 covered a new science, Frederic was great because of his 
 practical achievements, Cromwell because of his moral 
 ideals. If you would know a great man turn to his 
 age, has he built up institutions, revolutionised thought, 
 upheld idealism, reformed the morals or remoulded the policy 
 of his country? It may be said with perfect truth that at 
 
 17 
 
266 Life of Canning 
 
 a time of intense difficulty and danger, after the most fearful 
 and unexampled of political convulsions, Canning's courage 
 was undismayed and his mind was able to survey the present 
 and prepare for the future. He first proposed, and finally 
 made part of international law, principles which the terror and 
 the chaos of past years had induced both monarchs and nations 
 to disregard or forget. He averted that universal war which 
 seemed on the point of breaking out, he perceived the new 
 forces in motion, and whilst recognizing the new nations 
 defended the old against their attack. He boldly steered 
 over a strange uncharted sea beneath alien stars which 
 revealed nothing save to the eye of genius. Though con- 
 sistently practical he infused into England's foreign policy 
 something of his own generous passionate spirit, for however 
 firmly he trod on the earth he never forgot the sky overhead. 
 Chateaubriand described him as the Englishman whose inter- 
 national influence in politics had been equal to that of Newton 
 and Shakespere in science and letters. Heine said that the 
 eighth of August, the day on which Canning died a martyr's 
 death, should be consecrated to his memory as a holy day in 
 the Calendar of Freedom. The extravagance of contem- 
 poraries passes by, posterity adjusts the balance and history 
 exchanges advocacy for judgment. It will say of Canning 
 that he first introduced a liberal tone into continental diplo- 
 macy, and advocated that doctrine of nationalism which has 
 dominated the whole of subsequent European history, and 
 that he effected this revolution in the face of immense diffi- 
 culties but without the necessity of war. He was the guardian 
 and statesman of Liberty in its truest and noblest sense. 
 Englishmen will remember his great name, and reverence it 
 the more when they think that he, who yielded to none in his 
 love of country, was yet able to claim the regard of the 
 world. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE LEGACY OF CANNING 
 
 Almost the last words of Canning as he lay on his death- 
 bed were these* — " I have laboured hard for the last few 
 years to place the country in the high station which she now 
 holds. Two years of the Duke of Wellington's Government 
 will undo all that I have done." The prediction was almost 
 prophetic enough to confirm the poet's saying on the inspira- 
 tion of dying genius. The attitude of Wellington's Govern- 
 ment towards the East was so complete an abandonment of 
 Canning's whole policy that it need not here be discussed. It 
 is enough to say that while Turkey complained of being 
 betrayed Greece considered us as her enemy. But Welling- 
 ton's treatment of the questions of Portugal and France well 
 illustrates how Canning's policy could be reversed, in so far as 
 it was possible to do so without violating existing engage- 
 ments. On July 30, 1827, the agreement had been drafted by 
 which Don Miguel agreed to marry Donna Maria and swore 
 to accept the Constitutional Charter. Canning had shown an 
 undisguised preference for constitutional rule and was resolved 
 that Don Miguel, who was Absolutist to the core, should not 
 enter Portugal under false pretences and then overthrow the' 
 new institutions. Accordingly Lord Dudley instructed the 
 English ambassador to leave in the event of Don Miguel 
 assuming the title of king. On the other hand when Miguel 
 had usurped that title Aberdeen spoke of him and his Ab- 
 solutist supporters as " the friends of England," and by 
 implication censured the Constitutionalists as "not friendly 
 to good government in any country." He even went further 
 and forcibly interfered on Miguel's behalf, by dispersing 
 political refugees landed in England from Portugal. Towards 
 France the attitude of the Wellington Government was equally 
 unfortunate and at least a tacit countenance was given, not only 
 *p. 59, Lady Canning's pamphlet. 
 
268 Life of Canning 
 
 to Miguel, but to the absolutist ministry erected in France at the 
 end of 1829. We can understand Lady* Canning declaring 
 " It would be difficult to invent a system of policy (if syste m 
 it can be called) more directly opposed to Mr. Canning's than 
 the one pursued by the present Government." We can 
 admire the grand sincerity of the great soldier, who insisted 
 on a reduction of the forces and a peace-at-any -price policy, 
 and do justice to the gentle trustfulness by which Aberdeen 
 sought to conciliate foreign rulers at the expense of foreign 
 nations. But it is impossible to view f their speeches or their 
 actions without seeing that they had broken all direct connec- 
 tion with the later tendencies of Canning's policy. A lack of 
 sympathy, enterprise and daring had reduced the once famous 
 system to this melancholy end, and rendered England helpless 
 and powerless. The old difference between the measures and 
 the men was again discerned. We do not read that Omphale, 
 when she forced her distaff on Heracles and possessed herself 
 of his club, became thereby the slayer of men. 
 
 In examining Canning's legacy to England and the world 
 it is needful to distinguish its immediate and material conse- 
 quence, as produced by Canning and frustrated by his instant 
 successors, and the enduring and ultimate character of the 
 achieved results which they could not overthrow, — of his 
 intellectual conceptions and ideas. His policy has two parts' 
 a body and soul, one fragile formed of the clay and dust of 
 the wayside and the moment, the other compounded of more 
 ethereal essences — serene, immortal and imperishable. In 
 sorrow we turn from the accelerated decay of the one to 
 behold the continued life of the other. 
 
 Lord Acton, when passing in review all the great ministers 
 of England, pronounced that "no Foreign Secretary has 
 equalled Canning." If this judgment has not already been 
 confirmed by the recital of his achievements it will be vain to 
 attempt it now. But a few words may recall some of the 
 qualities which give him this pre-eminence. Canning possessed 
 in a very rare degree the qualities of thought and of action, not 
 only ability to form and conceive great ideas and principles 
 and to execute them, but an intense energy and a power of 
 instant decision in emergencies, which enabled him to baffle 
 the ambitious designs of England's enemies by the most 
 brilliant of counter strokes. He was inferior only to Chatham 
 ' p. 28. Pamphlet on Portugal 
 t Especially Aberdeen's July 17, 1828, and June 26, 1829. 
 
The Legacy of Canning 269 
 
 in the power of organizing the national strength and of plan- 
 ning great and successful expeditions. Nothing indeed in 
 English history exceeds the marvellous transformation wrought 
 by the Elder Pitt during his first ministry, the swift transition 
 from degradation to glory, the miraculous growth of empire 
 and of fame as it were upon the very foundations of ruin and 
 disgrace. But no one ever credited Chatham with great pro- 
 fundity of thought or extraordinary diplomatic skill. More- 
 over the France which he humbled and disgraced was the 
 France of Louis XV. The France which Canning opposed 
 was the France of Napoleon, a nation full of passion and 
 enthusiasm, inspired by the daemonic energy and splendid 
 genius of one of the ablest of all rulers. No time was ever 
 more full of peril for England, no enemy ever more terrible. 
 Canning undertook against him the only decisive measures 
 which any English statesman of the time had devised. The 
 seizure of the Danish fleet was a master-stroke of policy, the 
 blockade of the Tagus hardly less so, henceforth Napoleon 
 was cut off from the sea and the continental system was 
 destroyed. The promotion and support of the war in the 
 Peninsular was due largely to Canning's initiative and energy, 
 and was the only effective intervention undertaken by England 
 on the land. Wellington indeed was not the only conqueror 
 of Napoleon, who was pressed by many forces and many 
 nations to the ground. But in so far as the appeal to national 
 feeling in Spain and in Portugal awakened and stimulated 
 similar aspirations in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and 
 Italy, it is true to say that from the Iberian peninsula " issued 
 the deliverance of Europe." No English statesman faced the 
 great crisis of our history with as calm or unshaken a courage, 
 or did as much as Canning to continue the war or to promote 
 the awakening of the nations by word, example, and armed 
 aid. During his later years at the Foreign Office Canning 
 showed that he had not ceased to be the minister of action. 
 The despatch of troops to Portugal in December, 1826, was a 
 brilliant and masterly stroke which undoubtedly averted war. 
 Had Spain retorted by a declaration of hostility,* Canning had 
 planned to seize Cuba and thus end the contest at a blow. 
 The same profound strategic insight, which he shared with 
 Chatham and Marlborough, is displayed in his Eastern policy 
 
 *Stapleton, E. J. Correspondence II. 144, It is said, and there is good 
 authority for the statement, that Canning when Treasurer of the Navy 
 planned the expedition, which seized the Cape, the, key of India. This 
 is only another instance of his strategic ability. 
 
270 Life of Canning 
 
 and in his resolve that England should continue mistress of 
 the Mediterranean. 
 
 In the sense that he could discern and strike at the weak 
 points in an enemy's harness, Canning was a great war- 
 minister. It is in his union of these qualities with those of 
 a great statesman, who could survey the whole field of diplo- 
 macy, that Canning is unique among English ministers. The 
 immediate results which followed from his successors have 
 shown how little they understood the greatness of his concep- 
 tions and the larger aspects of his policy. Canning's sympathy 
 towards the Greeks, his assurance of independence to them, 
 his decision for armed intervention against the Turk, though 
 he had protested against that principle as applied to Spain, 
 all these actions were to Wellington either mischievous or un- 
 intelligible. But no one now thinks with Wellington, Castle- 
 reagh, and Metternich that the Greeks were rebels in the 
 sense the Spanish or Neapolitan constitutionalists were, or 
 that they were dangerous because they attacked the principles 
 of true Legitimacy and settled order as maintained and ex- 
 pounded by the Sublime Porte. An English statesman might 
 desire to preserve the Turkish Empire for purely political 
 reasons, but one who defended its existence on moral grounds, 
 as necessary to prevent the spread of revolutionary ideas, 
 would be considered at once to have abandoned all title to 
 statesmanship if not to sanity. Nor has any attempt to erect 
 Turkey into a normal civilized community with recognized 
 responsibilities yet succeeded. Canning considered the 
 Turkish question as apart and separate from his general 
 system of continental policy, and aimed in the East at a 
 balance of power rather than a balance of principle. This 
 view which he was the first to practise has only been justified 
 and strengthened by the lapse of time. 
 
 The first object of Canning's policy, in its widest and most 
 European aspect, was to dissolve the Holy Alliance. He had 
 described England as contending against Napoleon for a 
 •' prize — which was the Liberty of the World." His idea of 
 Liberty was contained in his favourite doctrine of "non- 
 intervention," or freedom for each State to control its internal 
 affairs. If England had stood forth against Napoleon, who 
 had been the greatest violator and outrager of this principle, 
 Canning was not likely to suffer the Holy Alliance to infringe 
 it. It is now a recognized principle of international law — and 
 it had before Canning's time been asserted by Kant and 
 Vattel — that no one nation has the least right to interfere 
 
The Legacy of Canning 271 
 
 with the government of another except in the case of anarchy. 
 Yet the principles of Legitimacy as interpreted by Metternich 
 and Alexander meant in brief that the sovereigns of Austria, 
 Russia and Prussia guaranteed every monarch his throne, and 
 promised to restore him to it, in case of rebellion, by force of 
 arms. The anarchy of twenty years had frightened the 
 statesmen of the old regime and the result was the monstrous 
 pretensions they thus advanced and which Canning opposed. 
 No statesman could have contended for a cause more liberal, 
 more just, or more essential to the existence of individual 
 nationalities. The Legitimists represented only order and 
 stability which ended in atrophy, the Revolutionists only a 
 progress which ended in disorder and anarchy. Canning 
 designed to hold the balance between these contradictory 
 principles, and so to avoid the danger of their collision, and 
 the general war which would result from the conflict between 
 two armed doctrines. No one now upholds the Absolutists 
 though it would not be difficultto say somethingintheirdefence. 
 But there are still passionate champions of Liberty who say 
 Canning should have done more for that cause. Reflection 
 will show how carefully Canning's policy was calculated to 
 smoothe the way for improvement, whilst not losing the 
 advantages of order and prescription, to provide for the 
 growth of nationalism without the dangers of anarchy and 
 revolution. 
 
 Let no one question the immense results of Canning's policy 
 because they cannot hear the rolling of drums and the braying 
 of trumpets, the measured tramp of armed legions, and the 
 roar of meeting battle. Every wise man knows that it is often 
 more splendid to have averted than to have arranged these 
 theatrical spectacles. It has been shown that as long as the 
 Holy Allies maintained their principles they constituted a 
 danger to the continent, and accordingly there was the risk 
 that they might arouse against them in arms the united 
 Liberals of all Europe. Garibaldi, who had been wounded and 
 defeated by the French in 1867, fought against Prussia for 
 France in 1870 because she had rejected her Emperor and 
 become a republic. If Liberal Republicans could believe that 
 a change of government could so transform a nation but 
 thirty years ago, what must have been their feelings during 
 1 820-30 and what must have been the danger ! The sovereigns 
 had announced that they would go to war on behalf of one 
 another, and this sen&eless provocation was an appeal to the 
 Liberals in all lands to arise and fight side by side. It was 
 
272 Life of Canning 
 
 largely due to Canning that the violence of these opinions was 
 abated and the necessity for this Liberal combination was 
 withdrawn. His first object was to force the Holy Alliance 
 to abandon their Legitimist pretensions, which amounted to 
 a qualified right of interference with the institutions of every 
 European State. Canning announced openly that he would 
 " get rid of the Areopagus and all that." But his method was 
 that of a statesman not a declaimer. He did not, as the Whigs 
 desired, begin by terming the chiefs of the Holy Alliance 
 " traitors " and " tyrants," but the bonds were silently relaxed 
 and the Holy Allies diplomatically routed and defied. 
 Canning proceeded to persuade them he was in earnest not 
 only by words but by deeds, and they were therefore thunder- 
 struck at his recognition of the New World and his defence of 
 Portugal. The Conferences of the Powers, wherein they 
 undertook the government of the World, had been marked for 
 especial hatred by all Liberals throughout Europe. These 
 stones of offence Canning also promptly removed. At Verona 
 he had prevented any attempt at joint-intervention in Spain. 
 Subsequently he prevented two congresses, being summoned, 
 of which one proposed to deal with, Spanish- American affairs, 
 another with those of Brazil. By refusing England's partici- 
 pation to the conference on Eastern Affairs he rendered its 
 results and decisions futile and abortive. These and other 
 actions brought it about that, as long as Canning lived, the 
 Liberals of all countries saw in him their champion against 
 the Holy Alliance, and a security for the existence of wise and 
 tolerant doctrines. 
 
 The war between the conflicting principles of democracy 
 and despotism, which Canning had foreseen and foretold, broke 
 out three years after his death. The revolution movements 
 of 1830 were no less universal than these of 1792 and 1848, 
 though they caused less bloodshed and terror. It is 
 significant that the whole European movement of 1830 
 began with a revolt in Paris against that most foolish and 
 most unwise ministry, headed by Polignac and forced byCharles 
 the Tenth on the nation against their will. The French 
 people, as always haughty and high spirited, had been to the 
 highest degree exasperated by the undisguised approval 
 shown towards this Ministry, which had committed many 
 arbitrary and unconstitutional acts, by Wellington and 
 Aberdeen. France as a whole looked at this action of 
 England in the old light of arbitrary interference by foreign 
 powers. We know the terrible results of such intervention 
 
The Legacy of Canning 273 
 
 in 1792, and the French belief in some similar design did some- 
 thing to accelerate this new revolution in 1830. Canning had 
 personally detested Polignac, and his principle of neutrality 
 would in any case have prevented him from passing any ex- 
 pressions of approval upon these absolutist actions and tenden- 
 cies. On small causes great events sometimes depend, and 
 Canning would certainly have refrained from flinging a fresh 
 brand on to those smouldering embers in France, which soon 
 flared up and set the whole of Europe aflame. The influence 
 of Canning's principles, however, had their ultimate effect. 
 Wellington and his colleagues, after their initial blunders, 
 laboured hard and with some success to narrow the range of 
 the struggle throughout Europe, and press upon foreign 
 powers the advantage of amnesty to vengeance as treatment 
 for defeated insurgents. Most significant of all, the changed 
 government in France was quietly accepted and recognized, 
 because it was the de facto though it was not the " legitimate " 
 government. 
 
 The crown and triumph of Canning's policy was seen in the 
 Congress of 183 1, which met for the arrangement of the affairs 
 of Belgium and Holland. There his principle of non-interven- 
 tion was fully accepted and made the basis of the whole 
 settlement. Talleyrand writes from the Congress of March 
 28, 1 83 1.* "Authority is needed somewhere for the pre- 
 servation of peace and order ... I can only perceive it in 
 one direction, that is in the alliance of the Five Powers, which 
 as it now stands has nothing to do with the Holy Alliance. 
 Non-intervention, when applied to the internal affairs ot 
 countries which change or modify their government, destroys 
 the basis on which the Holy Alliance rested." Here then 
 was a complete triumph and a complete justification and 
 adoption of Canning's policy. He had never objected to 
 Congresses as long as their objects were carefully defined and 
 their jurisdiction limited. He had opposed the Holy Alliance 
 conferences just because neither of these conditions was ful- 
 filled, and because they led in effect to a general union of 
 despotic rulers against any attempt to modify the institutions 
 of any State. Metternich had accused Canning of destroying 
 everything and building up nothing, of promoting anarchy and 
 revolution. In the Congress of 1830-1 the Powers solemnly 
 abandoned their principles openly professed till the very 
 
 * Talleyrand's Mem. IV. pp. 77-8. A subsequent passage is mislead- 
 ing and inaccurate as a description of Canning's policy. 
 
2 74 Life of Canning 
 
 moment of its meeting, and accepted that doctrine which 
 Canning had so consistently laid down, which Talleyrand 
 now adopted, and which has become at least in theory a 
 permanent and indestructible part of the international code. 
 The Holy Alliance, as a system for the governance of 
 Europe, was thus completely destroyed, but another system of 
 international regulation had been built up by the influence 
 of Canning. The Holy Alliance only remained as a bond to 
 unite Austria and Russia. Palmerston, when he undertook 
 to check the aggrandisement of Russia by "menacing her 
 with a perfumed cane," had not the skill or the fortune 
 of Canning in dividing his enemies. In 1848 the Czar sent 
 Muscovite troops to aid the Austrians in crushing the 
 Hungarian revolt, on the old pleas of maintaining order and 
 stability, and Palmerston could only protest with vigour but 
 without result. The Russian service, however, availed nothing 
 and all lingering relics of the Holy Alliance were swept away 
 by the difference between its last two supporters — Russia 
 and Austria — at the time of the Crimean war. 
 
 So far the action of Canning had been, as it were, negative. 
 The balance had been truly held and impartiality observed. 
 Canning might truly claim to have been the statesman of 
 Liberty in the sense that he had asserted the independence of 
 small nations against great, and the right of every nation to 
 amend its own internal institutions at will, and to have a 
 foreign policy of its own. But the overweening pretensions 
 of the Holy Alliance forced him out of his absolute neutrality 
 in his later years, and made him favour Liberty in a very 
 different sense. By Liberty the opinion of the time meant 
 not only the independence of each nationality, but the grant- 
 ing to the people of each and every State some share in their 
 own government Canning believed that the people in every 
 country were the origin of power and had a right to remodel 
 their own institutions. Further, he believed that consti- 
 tutional monarchy was the best of governments. But how- 
 ever much he approved of the growth of that tendency 
 elsewhere, he held it inconsistent with neutrality to encourage 
 it except by friendly advice or counsel. Any attempt to 
 guarantee a constitution or to force one upon any country 
 was objectionable to him, and he believed dangerous to the 
 country and constitution thus concerned. He did not believe 
 that institutions alone could make a nation stable, but that a 
 happy and prosperous nation made institutions. " Show 
 yourself possessed of stability in your present form of govern- 
 
The Legacy of Canning 275 
 
 ment, and I will recognize it," said Canning. But he would no 
 more recognize an unstable form of government because it was 
 constitutional, than an unstable form of government because 
 it was despotic. Thus he spoke of the Allies * " having put 
 down the constitutional systems (however little worth main- 
 taining) of Naples and Spain — not for their worthlessness, 
 but simply and declaredly because they were not octroyees 
 by the sovereign." This sentence, of which the parenthesis 
 alone concerns us, sounds for a moment almost like an utter- 
 ance of Castlereagh. But it must be remembered that the 
 constitution of 1812, which was advanced by both Spanish 
 and Neapolitan patriots was really unworkable in practice, 
 and soon condemned by the constitutionalists themselves. 
 Also in this very same letter Canning was encouraging the 
 cause of constitutional liberty in Portugal. Had he been 
 adverse to that cause there are several occasions on which, by 
 a mere policy of inaction, he could have destroyed all the 
 hopes of the Portuguese constitutionalists. In his anxiety and 
 his zeal to avail such an attitude, he was in fact driven out of 
 his neutrality, and England was definitely committed to a 
 pronounced approval of that constitution. At the same time 
 his despatch of troops to Portugal was only undertaken in 
 accordance with treaty rights, and with the view of contend- 
 ing against a foreign enemy. But the Whigs and the 
 Liberals throughout the world hailed it as a design on the 
 part of Canning to forward the constitutionalist cause with 
 the armed hand. But such was never his attitude, he was no 
 Don Quixote of politics who believed that a constitution 
 suited all countries, or that all countries were suited to a 
 constitution, or that it was the business of England to force 
 her theories on the world. The impulse and the desire must 
 proceed from within the country itself, but he would make 
 every effort to protect that country against external inter- 
 ference. Canning desired not to retard nor to force the 
 growth of liberty, but by moral support and encouragement 
 only to prepare for it a healthy soil, in which he hoped it 
 would strike root and flourish. 
 
 This attitude is entirely different from that of Palmerston 
 or Gladstone, the two other great champions of Liberty. The 
 attitude of the former was almost that of a huckster, who 
 
 * Portugal F.O. June 28th, 1826. Mr. Stapleton paraphrases this (Pol. 
 Life iii. 184) and does not give the full force of the sentence — which is a 
 most valuable insight into the views of Canning. The recognition of the 
 New World was of course of an exceptional character. 
 
276 Life 0/ Canning 
 
 approached foreign powers bawling out the value of his wares. 
 " These goods, sir, come from an old established firm, estab- 
 lished, sir, for some thousand years. I shall not cease, sir, to 
 importune you, unless you favour me with making trial of a 
 sample." Palmerston's policy was thus often calculated to 
 offend. If Canning's root-principle was ' non-interference,' 
 Palmerston's was almost 'pan-interference.' After agitating 
 and dazzling the Continent for a score of years, after doing 
 much good and some evil, he finally left us without a single 
 ally in Europe. His was a policy which resembled Blondin 
 treading the tight rope stretched over Niagara. All admired his 
 marvellous skill and courage in the midst of danger, but none 
 were thereby induced to imitate or accompany him. At 
 length his fall came, and his last years were marred by the 
 miserable failures of his Danish projects. His brilliant but 
 superficial cleverness failed entirely when confronted with the 
 indomitable will and resolution of Bismarck. On the other 
 hand, Gladstone was a champion of Liberty in no such 
 aggressive sense. His ideas were always lofty and noble, but 
 they lacked practical application. He seems to have 
 imagined the ballot-box and a constitution would be a sort of 
 compulsory and wonder-working Decalogue to the Ionian 
 islanders, and he spoke of the Mahdi and his followers, who 
 were seeking to establish one of the most savage and despotic 
 tyrannies that ever existed, as " rightly struggling to be free." 
 Yet despite these impracticable extravagances, he did much 
 by promoting arbitration to alleviate and calm animosity 
 between nation and nation. Above all his insistence upon 
 the moral ideal in politics was entirely noble and worthy of 
 the highest praise. But the practical contributions of both 
 these statesmen, if more ostentatious, were in fact less effective 
 than that of Canning to the cause all had at heart. In a 
 word Gladstone was the prophet, Palmerston the bagman, 
 and Canning the statesman of Liberty. 
 
 Canning's attitude, if cosmopolitan in one aspect, was 
 patriotic in another, though it is wrong to describe it as 
 "entirely English," in the sense that the policy of Disraeli 
 could be so described. Disraeli seems to have resolved that 
 England should play a splendid part on the world's stage, 
 and definitely to have aimed at aggrandisement as one of his 
 objects. On the other hand Canning emphatically disclaimed 
 all such ideas, and during his second period of sway England 
 acquired not a single inch of territory. He was resolved if 
 possible to check the aggrandisement of others, but he would 
 
The Legacy of Canning 277 
 
 not take any exclusive advantage himself, except in the way 
 of seeking materials for compensation. Thus when France 
 invaded Spain he retorted by recognizing Spanish America 
 as independent. We may compare this with that brilliant 
 and masterly stroke of policy — (as all must admit however 
 they question its morality) by which Disraeli occupied Cyprus. 
 This action was based apparently on the belief that Russia 
 had some designs on Asia Minor. Canning might have done 
 the same had Russia actually invaded that territory, but he 
 would certainly not have begun the process before that event. 
 On many occasions Canning checked the aggression and 
 aggrandisement of other Powers, on many others he could 
 have acquired territory for England, without transgressing 
 that margin of perfidy or duplicity usually permitted to the 
 consciences of diplomatists, but he scrupulously refrained. 
 He held that the acquisition of fresh land by any nation 
 would be ill bought at the price of a rupture of the territorial 
 guarantees of Vienna. Hence the best security for the peace 
 of the world lay in England increasing her influence rather 
 than her direct power, and posing as the impartial arbiter of 
 nations. This policy required the greatest skill in execution 
 and the utmost reputation for justice and honour. Where 
 one government invariably told the truth and acted according 
 to its professions, it was bound to prevail against governments 
 like those forming the Holy Alliance, which- could not even 
 trust one another. Thus Canning was able to press Austria 
 into his service to aid him in securing the recognition of 
 Brazil. Russia was associated with England, and Austria 
 tossed aside, in the settlement of the Eastern question, and as 
 a crowning triumph France was introduced into this alliance 
 to weigh down the balance against Russia and check her 
 schemes of aggrandisement. Here Canning showed the 
 highest diplomatic skill and it marked the difference between 
 him and Palmerston that the latter gave up the attempt to 
 divide the two great Powers of the East, but endeavoured to 
 unite France, England, Spain and Portugal against them. 
 This was a grievous falling off, for Canning had carried the 
 war into the enemy's camp and set one half fighting against 
 the other. No one felt more convinced than Canning that 
 we could not retire from Continental politics. " England 
 should not be content with the trident," said he, " but should 
 grasp the sceptre," and he held that our interference in Europe, 
 while it should be only occasional, should be always emphatic. 
 He suspected entangling alliances of a permanent character, 
 
278 Life of Canning 
 
 and trusted most to the establishment of British prestige. So 
 immense was the influence Canning had acquired at his 
 death, so great was the confidence and good-will of the people 
 of other nations in him, that hardly one of the European 
 governments would have ventured to declare war against 
 England, for it would have been a measure too unpopular to 
 hazard. Thus it was that he was enabled to carry into effect 
 almost all of his great schemes, and it was this influence 
 which he bequeathed to Palmerston, and which enabled that 
 jaunty statesman to lord it over Europe for so long without 
 provoking actual hostilities.* "By these means Canning 
 obtained over the other governments of Europe an influence 
 which he employed not only to promote the interests of 
 England, but the general prosperity of the world." 
 
 Towards the Old World Canning showed himself as a 
 statesman at once original and profound. It was in realizing 
 the effects produced by the French Revolution and Napoleon, 
 in adapting the old diplomacy to the new conditions, in 
 harmonizing our political and commercial needs that Canning's 
 genius shewed itself both dazzling and resplendent. But his 
 attitude towards the New World showed a statesmanship 
 as skilful and more original. By his policy not only was our 
 influence enormously increased but our material resources 
 immensely developed. His first aim was to open up fresh 
 markets for British goods, and though not insisting on a pre- 
 ferential treatment he was resolved to break down the old 
 system of monopoly, which confined the export trade of every 
 colony exclusively to the ports of its mother-country. In 
 this he was entirely and triumphantly victorious. His second 
 aim was to develop the British colonies and abolish the slave 
 trade, and here he attained no inconsiderable measure of 
 success. The last of his aims was political, to limit the 
 influence of the United States, to prevent the designs of the 
 Holy Alliance, and to make the Republics and monarchies 
 of South America look to England for guidance. Above all 
 he desired to bind together the Old World and New, to 
 prombte an intercourse of ideas as much as an interchange of 
 commerce, to cool the hot blood of America and to pour new 
 life and vigour into old Europe. Russia was speedily cowed 
 and France, confronted by Canning with a threat of war, 
 hastily abandoned the idea of extending Legitimacy to 
 
 * War was declared with Russia in 1854 whilst Palmerston was out ol 
 office. The quotation below is from Lady Canning's pamphlet, p. 54. 
 
The Legacy of Canning 279 
 
 the New World. With the United States his task was more 
 difficult. His great scheme of uniting them with England in 
 a joint declaration against the Holy Alliance failed. 
 Before Canning was in office they were already possessed of 
 Florida and Louisiana, and so had become the supreme power 
 in the new hemisphere. The Monroe doctrine, as understood 
 by Adams, asserted this and something more. But these 
 further pretensions were carefully qualified and restrained by 
 Canning, Cuba was snatched from the grasp of Adams and 
 the South American Republics were gathered round England. 
 In spite of these limitations of the influence of the United 
 States it is from the time of Canning that " the era of good 
 feeling," as Americans call it, is dated ; the time when England, 
 after a period of pettiness, dispute and hostility, settled down 
 into a steady though cautious friendship, and adopted a 
 policy of mingled firmness and conciliation. 
 
 It remains only to give a final estimate of Canning's work. 
 On the whole his originality is unquestioned, though his 
 Spanish policy much resembles that of Pitt towards France 
 between 1789-92, while he borrowed a hint from Chatham in 
 dealing with South America. His debt to Castlereagh is 
 small, for in his earlier policy from 1807-9 the later tendencies 
 are foreshadowed, whilst he himself, after 181 8, was the main 
 cause of Castlereagh's change of front. As far as we can 
 judge Wellington endeavoured to model his ideas from 1822 
 onwards, upon what he thought would have been the policy 
 of Castlereagh. Londonderry, the brother and confidant of 
 Castlereagh, declared Canning had departed entirely from his 
 policy. If this be true Castlereagh's conduct of affairs after 
 1822 would have been as inefficient as it was before 1818. In 
 judging Canning it is well to remember that no man ever con- 
 tended against greater adversaries or against more formidable 
 coalitions, and that in so far as his work was imperfect we 
 may ascribe it to these causes. Richelieu had only to meet 
 the incapable Buckingham, the visionary Ferdinand and the 
 somewhat dull-witted Olivarez, Bismarck fought such phan- 
 toms as Rechberg and Napoleon the third, Chatham had 
 always on his side the ablest general and one of the ablest 
 statesmen in Europe — Frederic the Great. Canning faced 
 Napoleon, Metternich, and Adams, not to speak of such 
 men as Alexander, Chateaubriand, and ViU^Ie. He wrested 
 the Danish and Portuguese fleets from Napoleon and under- 
 took against him the decisive Peninsular war. Metternich and 
 Alexander were defied and baffled both in the New World and 
 
28o Life of Canning 
 
 the Old, in spite of tlie fact that they headed the League of 
 the three strongest military powers in Europe. France, after 
 vainly opposing Canning, became his enthusiastic ally. In 
 the New World Canning contended at a disadvantage, but on 
 the whole the honours were divided between him and Adams. 
 If we look for practical results to his policy we see Portugal 
 owing to him her security, Greece and the South American 
 republics their existence, Europe its peace and tranquillity. 
 Above all the world's chief debt to him is that it was owing 
 to his influence that the Holy Alliance was dissolved and 
 Liberalism introduced into European diplomacy. The 
 doctrine of nationality, which is the most important and 
 dominating fact of European politics to-day was first ad- 
 vanced and asserted by Canning. If these achievements are 
 not enough to bestow upon him immortality it is vain to seek 
 for others. If England does not enshrine and hallow the name 
 of Canning it will be a sign that it is not well with her. 
 For of all her foreign ministers none have loved her more 
 passionately, and none have left a name more instinct with 
 the memories of freedom or of light, or more justly entitled to 
 the gratitude not only of England but of mankind. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Aberdeen, Earl of, 268n ; Turkish 
 policy, 222 ; — Portuguese, 267. 
 
 Absolutists in Portugal, rise of, 198, 
 201. 
 
 Acland, J. D. Canning's defence, on, 
 116. 
 
 A'Court, Sir William, English 
 ambassador at Naples, 145 ; 
 relations with Castlereagh, 148 ; 
 ambassador to Madrid, 148, J62 ; — 
 appointment protested against by 
 the Allies, ls6-iS7i 264 ; Canning's 
 correspondence with, lS4n., 167, 
 168, 203n. i action during 
 Ferdinand's captivity, 168 ; 
 ambassador to Lisbon, 199. 
 
 Acton, Lord, opinion of Canning, 10, 
 108, 268. 
 
 Adams, J., United States Secretary, 15, 
 178 ; diary of, 14 ; negotiations 
 with Canning, 181-182 ; policy of, 
 181-184; Monroe Doctrine, con- 
 nection with, 183. 
 
 Addington, H., administration, 6iei 
 seq; relations with Canning, II, 
 64, 65, iio-iii, 186 and note. 
 260, in Pitt's ministry, 66; in 
 "All the Talents," 68; resig- 
 nations of, 66, 125, policy of, 121 ; 
 retirement from the Cabinet, i86n. 
 
 Addington, Hiley, 44. 
 
 African Society, the, 246. 
 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, Congress at, I3in, 
 
 132-133. 138, 142. ISS. 175- . 
 Alexander, Czar, see also Holy Alliance, 
 negotiations with Napoleon, 72 ; 
 at the Vienna Congress, 130 ; 
 connection with the Holy 
 Alliance, 132 et seq. ; repressive 
 policy of, 139 ; attitude towards 
 Spain, ISS, 157-158; effect of 
 Wellington's policy on, 159 ; 
 personal description, 161 ; policy 
 towards South American Colonies, 
 
 17s, 176, 178; Ukase of, 176, 
 182, 183, 184, 213 ; interference 
 in Greece, 206-207, 211 ; death of, 
 214. 
 
 Alfred Club, 243. 
 
 Ali, Mehomet, Sultan aided by, 209. 
 
 Alison, Sir Archibald, attitude towards 
 first Reform Bill, 100. 
 
 Alison — Phillips, W., 11. 
 
 " All the Talents," 78, 83 ; Canning's 
 opposition to, 68, 96, 260. 
 
 Amiens, Peace of, 65, 129 ; Canning's 
 denunciation of, 211. 
 
 " Analogy of the Arts of Weaving and 
 Poetry," 23. 
 
 Anglesea, Henry Marquis of, 232. 
 
 Anti-Jacobin, the. Canning's connection 
 with, 44-S3, 1 18. 
 
 Army of observation, See Cordon 
 Saniiaire. 
 
 Ashbourne, Lord, 15, 61. 
 
 Auckland, Lord, Canning's correspond- 
 ence with, 44, 47, sin., 62. 
 
 Augereau, Gen., 57. 
 
 Austerlitz, 66. 
 
 Austria, See aha, Metternich,'England's 
 negotiations with, S7 i — attitude 
 towards, 143 ; intervention in 
 Naples, 144, 14s, 149 ; evacu- 
 ation of Piedmont requested by 
 Canning, 154. 
 
 Ayacucho, Bolivia's victory at, 186. 
 
 Bagot, Sir Charles, Canning's corres- 
 pondence with, I2S, I92n., 264, 
 
 Baird, Sir David, 87. 
 
 Bathurst, Henry, Lord, I34n., IS3 and 
 note ; resignation of, 230. 
 
 " Baviad," the, 44, 51. 
 
 Beaconsfield, Earl of, 90 : policy of, 
 ID, 108, 164, 276-277 ; attitude 
 towards the Constitution, 98 ; 
 quoted on Canning, 3^6. 
 
 Bedford, Duke of, 22. 
 
282 
 
 Index 
 
 Belgium, restoration to Emperor, 
 demanded by England, 54. 
 
 Bell, John, on Canning, lo-ii, on 
 Castlereagh, I son. 
 
 Bennigsen, Tilsit Treaty, connection 
 with, 92-93. 
 
 Bentham, Jeremy, 9, 28, 113. 
 
 Bentinck, Lord William, 137, I47n., 
 148. 
 
 Berlin Decree, issue of, 72. 
 
 Bernstorff, Danish Minister, 75, 76. 
 
 Berquer, Colonel, quoted on Canning, 
 231. 
 
 Bexley, Lord, See Vansittart, N. 
 
 Billaud — ^Varennes, 49. 
 
 Bismarck, Count, 148, 276, 279. 
 
 Blackstone, Sir W. 95, 98, 103. 
 
 Bolingbroke, Lord, 255. 
 
 Bolivar, Gen., adventures and 
 character of, 174, victory of, 186 ; 
 Canning's influence over, 188-189. 
 
 Bolivia, independence of, 174, report 
 of Commission on, 185. 
 
 Bonaparte, Joseph, rejected by the 
 Spanish colonies, 174. 
 
 Bonaparte, Napoleon, Directory over- 
 turned by, 59, negotiations for 
 peace wnith England, 60 ; victory 
 at Marengo, 62 ; negotiations with 
 Fox, 70 ; relations with Frederic 
 William of Prussia, 70 ; battle of 
 Eylau, 71 ! Continental system 
 inaugurated by, 72 ; negotiations 
 with Czar Alexander, 72 ; Danish 
 policy, 76; English policy, 76 et 
 seq, 85 ; Portuguese policy, 79 ; — 
 closure of ports, 80 ; Spanish 
 policy, 84 ; quoted on Castlere^h, 
 I29n. 
 
 Boringdon, Lord, Canning's corres- 
 pondence with, 32, 41, 58, 59, 60. 
 76, 240 ; friendship for Canning, 
 26, 243- 
 
 Bourne, Sturges, 1 14 ; friendship for 
 Canning, 26, 243, in Canning's 
 cabinet, 230. 
 
 Bragge, connection with the Anti- 
 Jacobin, 44. 
 
 Brazil, retirement of Portuguese Court 
 to 197 ; independence ptoclaimed 
 by Don Pedro, 199 ; slave trade 
 abolished in, 200-201, reunited to 
 Portugal under Don Pedro, 201. 
 
 Bright, John, 1 14. 
 
 Brooks, 44. 
 
 Brooks's Club, 231. 
 
 Brougham, Lord, 15, 245n. meeting 
 with Canning 24 ; Whig candidate 
 
 for Liverpool, 112 ; attitude 
 towards Queen Caroline, 123, 
 124, — towards the Holy Alliance, 
 132 ; reply to Canning's speech, 
 170 ; policy of, 171 ; interview 
 with Canning, 231 ; satirized by 
 Canning, 248-249 ; style of 
 oratory, 250, 253, 255 ; on 
 Canning's oratory, 254 ; incident 
 with Canning, 262. 
 
 Buckingham, Duke of, " Memoirs," ij, 
 234n ; opposition to Canning, 228. 
 
 Buenos Ayres, expedition to, 81, 
 report of Commission, 185 ; 
 Canningfs treaty with, 186; 
 recognition of, 187. 
 
 Bullion Committee of 1810, 113. 
 
 Burdett, Sir Frances, 116, 260. 
 
 Burke, Edmund, 28, 29, 43, 95, 
 politics of, 31 ; relations with 
 Canning, 33 ; style of oratory, 34- 
 35, 250, 251, connection with the 
 Anti-Jacobin, 52-53 ; attitude 
 towards the French Revolution, 
 43, 54 ; learning and personality 
 of 243, 247, 261. 
 
 Burney, Frances, 24, 28, 36. 
 
 Burrard, Sir H., 85. 
 
 Buxton, Sir T. Fowell, 262. 
 
 Byng, Sir John, 246. 
 
 Byron, Lord, quoted on Sheridan, 29, 
 satire of 50, on Canning, 114, 255. 
 Greece helped by, 209. 
 
 Cabinet, the, 98-99. 
 
 Cadiz, bombardment of, 166. 
 
 Camden, Lord, 89, 90, and note. 
 
 Canning and his times, I42n. 
 
 Canning, George, (father of the States- 
 man), i8. 
 
 Canning, George — 
 
 Character, ability, and works — Char- 
 acter, 32, 83, 104, 120, 135, 167, 
 255-268, works of 44, 46, 64 ; — 
 poems, 43, 46, et seq, 64, 247-248, 
 — prose style, 248-250, contrasted 
 with Peel, 104 ; popularity of, 103, 
 204, conversational powers of, 245 ; 
 — style of oratory, 253-256 ; style 
 of wit, 246-247 ; — passage on Lord 
 Nugent, quoted, 252 ; learning of, 
 (Classic Canning), 247 ; Quarterly 
 Review, articles contributed to, 
 248-249 ; religion of, 258-259. 
 Correspondence of— see under names 
 of various correspondents. 
 Events etc., in li/e of— Ancestry of, 
 17-18. Early years, 17 et seg. ; 
 
Index 
 
 283 
 
 Canning, George — Continued. 
 
 Eton, 21-24 ; at Oxford, 25-26 ; at 
 the Bar, 27 ; quoted on inde- 
 pendence of opinion, 30, 32 ; — on 
 cause of French hostility, 163 ; — on 
 Parliamentary oratory, 250 ; Tory 
 principles of, 30 et seq. ; Whigs 
 abandoned by, 30 et seq ; Whig 
 leaders abused by, 49-50 ; coahtion 
 with the Whigs, 231 ; anecdote of, 
 by Scott, 32-33 ; entry into Parlia- 
 ment, and first speech, 36-37 ; con- 
 nection with the Anti-Jacobin, 44- 
 53 ; attitude towards Jacobinism, 
 48 ; Under Secretary for Foreign 
 affairs, 54 et seq. ; — resignation of, 
 and member of Board of Control, 
 57 ; Peace of Amiens, attitude 
 regarding, 65 ; Foreign Secretary- 
 ship, refusal of, 1 1 1 - 1 1 2 ; — appoint- 
 ment to, 69, 125, 152-153; Tilsit 
 Treaty, source of information, 91- 
 93 ; attitude towards the Constitu- 
 tion, 96, 104 ; attitude towards 
 Reform, 100, loi, 102, 121-122, 
 263 ; jealousy towards, and at- 
 tacks on, 109-IH, 232-235 ; elected 
 M.P. for Liverpool, 112-113; 
 difference with the Tories, 1 13-1 14; 
 iourney to Portugal as ambassador 
 extraordinary, 114-115, 197; Pre- 
 sident of the Board of Control for 
 India, 115-118; Governor-Gen- 
 eralship of India offered to, 124 ; 
 at Aix-la-Chapelle, during the 
 Conference, 142 ; attitude towards 
 the Government, 1820-1822, 152 ; 
 refusal to join conference on 
 American affairs, 184 ; appointed 
 Premier, 229 ; — opposition to, 226, 
 228, — Cabinet of, 230-232 ; last 
 days and death of, 236-239 ; mar- 
 riage of, 240-241. Children of, 
 242 ; friends of, 243 ; salary and 
 pension of, 258 ; Liberty, attitude 
 towards, 274-275 ; compared with 
 Palmerston and Gladstone, 275- 
 276. 
 
 Measures ete. connected with — 
 Catholic Emancipation, champion- 
 ship of, 104-108 ; Queen Caroline, 
 defence of, 122 et seq. ; Slave 
 trade, attempts to abolish, 194-195 ; 
 — proposals for amelioration of 
 slavery, 195-196 ; Brazil and 
 Portugal, mediation between, 200- 
 20I ; Greece, freedom of, 207 et 
 seq ; Corn Law Relief Bill, 225. 
 
 Policy — Danish policy of, 73 et 
 seq. ; — criticism and defence of, 
 78-79 ; — seizure of Danish fleet, 
 269 ; Portuguese policy of, 79-80, 
 83, 85, 167, 198-204, 269; 
 Continental System, attitude 
 towards, 81-82 ; — opinion of, 
 quoted, 83 ; subsidy policy, plan 
 of, 83-84 ; Spanish policy, 84 et 
 seq, 162 ; — at the Verona Congress, 
 156-159 ; — satisfaction demanded 
 for depredations on shipping, 162 ; 
 — after the overthrow of the 
 Cortes, 168 ; — constitutional 
 government for, attitude towards, 
 168-170, Domestic policy of, 94- 
 117 ; Canning a free trader, 192 ; 
 political creed of, 94 et seq ; 
 Foreign policy in general, 117 
 et seq., 136, 172 ; — criticism of, 
 177; Indian policy, 118-119; 
 policy towards Holy Alliance, 
 134. 139) 270-272; — Convention of 
 Cintra, correspondence regarding, 
 85-86 ; — attitude towards the 
 Treaty of Vienna, 130 ; — instruc- 
 tions to Wellington, 154 ; — Verona 
 policy, result, 159-162. French 
 policy, 55-67, 162, 164 ; — attitude 
 towards the Revolution, 41, 43, 
 54 ; — towards the Spanish invasion, 
 164 ; United States policy, 178, 
 181-182, 278, 279 ; N«w World 
 policy, 179, 180, 185, 278 ;— re- 
 garding Cuba, 184-185 ; — towards 
 Jamaica, on the slave question, 
 196-197; — Turkish policy, 213-214, 
 219-220 ; — criticism of, 222-223, 
 Greek policy 270. 
 Relations with Contemporaries, 
 see under various names. 
 Speeches — Denunciation of French 
 principles, quoted, 58-59 ; on 
 conduct of Addington Ministry, 
 65 ; on the Currency, 114; to the 
 Portuguese, quoted, 115 ; regarding 
 the "Lisbon job," 116; at 
 Plymouth 1823, quoted, 170-171 ; 
 on Portuguese affairs, 190 ; on 
 Slave Trade, quoted, 194, 196 ; 
 on Corn Law Relief Bill, quoted, 
 225 ; — May ist 1827, quoted, 
 233;— style of, 253-254; on 
 Windsor Establishment of George 
 III, quoted, 254 ; on the New 
 World, 255. 
 Canning, Harriet, Lady Clanricarde 
 242, 
 
284 
 
 Index 
 
 Canning, Lady, pamphlet 14 ; quoted, 
 208, 267, 268, 278, and note. 
 
 Lord, iign., 237, 242. 
 
 Mrs., 19-20. 
 
 Stratford, uncle of George Canning, 
 
 20-21. 
 
 Stratford, quoted, 142, 210, 212 ; 
 
 mission to Russia, 211-213; 
 ambassador to Constantinople, 
 213 ; correspondence with George 
 Canning, 215, 218, 2l9n, instruc- 
 tions to Codrington, quoted, 220 ; 
 connection with George Canning, 
 261, 264. 
 
 Capodistrias, Russian Minister, 143, 
 206. 
 
 Carbonari, the, 143, 158. 
 
 Carlisle, Lord, 26, 243. 
 
 Carlton House, 27. 
 
 Carmarthen, Lord, 22. 
 
 Caroline, Queen, Canning's champion- 
 ship of, 122, et seq. 
 
 Carrier, 49. 
 
 Cartwright, E. 82. 
 
 Castlereagh, Lord, relations with Can- 
 ning, n, 88 «/ seq. I lo-i 12, 260 ; — 
 duel between, 89-90 ; — Canning's 
 influence on, 153, 154, 264 ; des- 
 patches of, 12, 13, 14, I34n, I37n, 
 I42n, 206. Correspondence with 
 Stewart, 13, 140, 143, 144, 148, in 
 Pitt's Cabinet, 66 ; in the Portland 
 ministry, 69 ; connection with the 
 Act of Union, 105; attitude towards 
 Queen Caroline, 124, 147 ; death 
 of, 124-125, 147, at the Vienna 
 Congress, 127 et seq. ; — quoted on 
 the alliance against the Jacobins, 
 130; policy towards the Holy 
 Alliance, 130 et seq. ; change in 
 140 et seq. ; — memoir of, 144 ; — 
 relations with Metternich (see also 
 Holy Alliance), 146 ; unpopularity 
 and character of, 147, 245 ; — 
 vacillations of, 1 50 ; — ineptitude oJ 
 129 ;-^inconsistency of, 137 ; in- 
 structions regarding Spain, 156 ; 
 policy towards South American 
 Colonies, 175, 178 ; correspon- 
 dence with Sir H. Wellesley, I78n ; 
 attitude towards Slave Trade, 194- 
 195 ; Grecian policy, 206-207 ; cor- 
 respondence with Strangford, 
 quoted, 207. 
 
 Catholic Emancipation Act, resignation 
 of Pitt over, 60-61 ; advocated by 
 Canning, 104-107, 226 ; carried by 
 Wellington and Peel, 107. 
 
 Cavendish, Lord John, 22. 
 
 Chalmers, Dr., 258. 
 
 Charles X, Canning's negotiations with 
 218 ; — influence on, 265. 
 
 Chateaubriand, at the Verona Con- 
 gress, 14, 161 ; quoted, 149, 162 ; 
 successor to Montmorency, 163 ; 
 influence on King's speech, 164 : 
 attitude towards the Monroe Doc- 
 trine, 184 ; at the Verona Con- 
 gress, 161-162 ; dismissed from 
 office, 185, 199 ; action regarding 
 the American Colonies, 176, 187 ; 
 foreign policy of, 176, 178 : rela- 
 tions with Canning, 164, 247, 257, 
 266 ; war with Spain, 164 et seq. 
 
 Chatham, Earl of, policy, 10, 173 ; 
 oratory of, 255. 
 
 Chatterton, T., 17. 
 
 Chauvelin, M., 29. 
 
 Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 
 Earl of, 248. 
 
 Chile, report of Canning's Commission, 
 186. 
 
 Chios, sacking of, 209. 
 
 Churchill, C, 18, 49. 
 
 Cintra, Convention of, 85. 
 
 Clanricarde Lady, see Canning, Harriet. 
 
 Clanricarde, Marquis of, 242. 
 
 Clanwilliam, Lord, 257. 
 
 Clarence, Duke of, 22on. ; appointed 
 Lord High Admiral, 231. 
 
 Clarkson, Thomas, 196. 
 
 Clay, 264, 265. 
 
 Cleveland, President, 183. 
 
 Clifford, Lord, 106. 
 
 Coalitions, Pitt and Fox, 30-32, 66 ; 
 Canning and the Whigs, 231. 
 
 Cobden, R., 22. 
 
 Cochrane, Admiral, 175. 
 
 Codrington, Admiral, 220, 221. 
 
 Coleridge, S., 48; quoted, loi, 250: 
 aided by Canning, 257. 
 
 Colman, G., 18. 
 
 Columbia, independence of, 174 ; report 
 of Canning's Commission, 185. 
 
 Comte, A., 47. 
 
 Condorcet, M., 48. 
 
 Conference on American afiairs. Can- 
 ning's refusal to join, 184. 
 
 Congress of 1831, Canning's principles 
 of non-intervention adopted at 273. 
 
 Continental System, the, inaugurated 
 by Napoleon, 72 ; effect on English 
 trade, 120 ; attitude of America 
 towards, 81 ; Canning's opinion 
 of, 81-83. 
 
 Convention of Cintra, 85, 89. 
 
Index 
 
 285 
 
 Conyngham, Lord Francis, gSn, 18611. 
 Copenhagen, fall of, 75. 
 Copley, see Lyndhurst, Lord. 
 Cordon Sanitaire, the, 156, 163. 
 Corn Law Relief Bill, introduced by 
 
 Canning and Huslsisson, 225 ; 
 
 Wellington's amendment to 235- 
 
 236. 
 Cornwallis, Lord, 105. 
 Cortei, 173. 
 Corunna, 87. 
 
 Cory, W., Letters and Journals, 2S7n. 
 " Council of the Indies," 173, 178. 
 Creevey, E., 15, 114 ; Whig candidate 
 
 for Liverpool, 112. 
 Creevey Papers, 15, 29, 65 and note, 
 
 i5on., 225, 226, 251. 
 Crewe, Mrs., 28, 246. 
 Crimean War, 274. 
 Croker Papers, 15. 
 Crompton, S., 82. 
 " Crown and Anchor Club," 30. 
 Cuba, Canning's policy regarding, 184- 
 
 185, 269, effect of recognition on, 
 
 188. 
 Curran, J., 28. 
 Cyprus, Disraeli's policy, towards, 277. 
 
 Dalling, Lord, 3in. 
 
 Dalrymple, Sir Hew, 85. 
 
 Damas, French Minister, 202. 
 
 d'Angouleme, Due, 166, 169, 197. 
 
 d'Artois, Comte, 164. 
 
 Darwin, Erasmus, 48, 51. 
 
 Dawson, attacks on Canning, 232, 233. 
 
 DJak, 210. 
 
 de Broglie, Due, 245. 
 
 de Krudener, Mme., 131. 
 
 de Louli, Marquis, murder of, 198. 
 
 De NeuviUe, intrigues in Portugal, 
 197-199. 
 
 de Redcliffe, Lord Stratford, 15, 30, 
 3in., 4in., S8n., 256. 
 
 de Stael, Mme., 245. 
 
 , M, Canning's correspondence 
 
 with, 247. 
 
 Decken, Baron, 77. 
 
 Delolme, 100 ; appreciation of British 
 Constitution, 95. 
 
 Denmark, Berlin Decree, effect on 
 policy of, 72 ; England and, 
 relations and negotiations between, 
 73, et. seq. ; Canning's expedition 
 sent out, 74, Napoleon's policy 
 towards, 76 ; Danish fleet, result 
 of withdrawal, 78-79' 
 
 Devonshire, Duchess of, political 
 influence of, 27-28. 
 
 Devonshire, Duke of, offer to Canning, 
 
 236. 
 Devonshire House, 27, 28, 43. 
 " Diary of Sir John Moore," 13. 
 Directory, Pitt's negotiations with, 54, 
 
 55, 57 ; overthrown by Napoleon, 
 
 59- 
 " Dodsley's Miscellanies," 18. 
 Dorman, 14. 
 
 Douglas, Revd. W., 244-245. 
 Dryden, satire of, 50. 
 Dudley, Lord, 2i9n., 231, 267. 
 Duff, Grant, 243n. 
 Dumouriez, 13. 
 Dunbar, Captain, report of movements 
 
 of Danish fleet, 73. 
 Dundas, see Melville, Lord. 
 Durham, Lord, see Lambton, 197. 
 
 "Early Days of George Canning,'' 
 Newton's, 15. 
 
 Eldon, Lord, politics of, 94, 95 ; 
 opposition to Canning, 1 10- 11 2' 
 125, 186, 229 ; king's speech 
 delivered by, 187, attitude towards 
 slave trade, 195, incident regard- 
 ing Canning and, 224 ; Cannings 
 influence on, 264. 
 
 Ellis, Charles, see Seaforth, Lord. 
 
 , George, 44. 
 
 Elphinstone, 118. 
 
 England, Denmark, negotiations with, 
 73 et seq. ; Sweden, alliance with, 
 75-77 ; social state from 1809- 1822, 
 120 ; relations with l^pain, 140- 
 141 ; foreign policy defined, 140- 
 141 ; break with the Holy 
 Alliance, 145, 159, attitude 
 towards South America, 175, 
 policy towards Turkey on death 
 of Canning, 222. 
 
 "English Historical Review," 13. 
 
 Erroll, Lady, quoted, 245. 
 
 Erskine, Lord, 28, 35, 49, 68, — 
 quoted, 231. 
 
 Esterhazy, 160, 187. 
 
 " Etonian," the 23. 
 
 Exaltados the, 155, 156, 166. 
 
 Eylau, battle of, 71. 
 
 Falck, Dutch foreign minister, 193. 
 
 Farre, Dr., 259. 
 
 Fenwick, quoted, 79. 
 
 Ferdinand IV. (of Naples), restored by 
 Holy Alliance, 144, 145 ; at the 
 Congress of Verona, 160. 
 
 Ferdinand VII. (of Spain), character 
 and cruelties of, 140, 155 ; 
 captivity and release, 166 ; 
 
286 
 
 Index 
 
 subsequent cruelties, 167 ; 
 attitude towards the Monroe 
 Doctrine, 184 ; protest against 
 South American recognition, 189, 
 intrigue with Don Miguel, 202 ; 
 Portuguese Regency recognised 
 by, 203. 
 
 Festing, Gabrielle, 15, 62n., 64n., 
 65n., 66n., 67n., i6on., i67n., 
 240n., 242n., 244n, 
 
 Fitzherbert, Mrs., 187. 
 
 Fitzmaurice, 32n. 
 
 Fitzpatrick, Colonel, 28 ; — quoted, 33n. 
 
 Folkestone, Lord, 262. 
 
 Foreign Enlistment Bill, i8on. 
 
 Forster, Lady Elizabeth, 29. 
 
 Fouch^'s Memoirs, 92. 
 
 Fox, Charles James, interest in 
 Canning, 21 ; Duchess of Devon- 
 shire's interest in, 28 ; relations 
 with Burke, 29 ; — with Pitt, 31- 
 32, 66, style of oratory, 34-35, 
 250. 2SS ; policy of, 48-49, 83 ; 
 Napoleon's negotiations with, 70 ; 
 act of, abolishing the slave trade 
 for English traders, 194, learning 
 of, 247. 
 
 France, war with England, 42, 66 ; 
 Lord Malmesbury's negotiations, 
 54-57 > White Terror in, 120 ; 
 Peace of Amiens, 129, 211 ; policy 
 towards Spain at the Verona 
 Congress, 157 ; Spanish war. 
 Canning's endeavours to maintain 
 peace, 164 ; — objects of the war, 
 165 ; — invasion of Spain begun, 
 166; — evacuation of Spain, 190; 
 attitude towards the Monroe 
 Doctrine, 184 : policy of non- 
 intervention declared by Villele, 
 185 ; Wellington's policy towards, 
 267. 
 
 Francis, Emperor, 146-147. 
 
 "Frankenstein," Mrs. Shelley's, 196. 
 
 Frederic William of Prussia, relations 
 with Pitt, 68 ; — with Napoleon, 70. 
 
 Free Trade, Canning's attitude towards, 
 192. 
 
 French Revolution, effects of, 39-40, 
 95, 205 ; Canning's attitude 
 towards, 41-43. 
 
 Frere, Hookham, relations with 
 Canning, 22, 23, 24, 3 In, 87, 
 243, 26in., 264 ; first meeting 
 between Canning and Pitt arranged 
 ^y> 34 ; contributions to the 
 Anti-Jacobin, 44 et seq., 51 ; 
 correspondence with Canning, 
 
 quoted, 62, 65, 66, 67, 160, 167 ; 
 relations with Sir John Moore, 
 86 ; in Spain 86-88 ; correspondence 
 with E. J. Stapleton, i88n., 
 quoted on death of Canning, 238 ; 
 —on Canning's character, 265. 
 
 Frere, Sir Bartle, Memoir of, 15, j 
 
 Friedland, Napoleon at, 72. 
 
 " Friend of Humanity," 44, 51, 
 
 Fyffe, Chas., 14. 
 
 Gainsborough, Thomas, 21. 
 
 Gambler, Lord, commander of expedi- 
 tion to Denmark, 74. 
 
 Garibaldi, 271. 
 
 Garlike, English ambassador at 
 Copenhagen, 73, 77. 
 
 Garrick, David, 19. 
 
 Gascoyne, General, politics of, 94, 95 ; 
 candidate for Liverpool, 112. 
 
 Gentz, Correspondence of, 14, 2t5n. 
 Holy Alliance, description quoted, 
 133 ; quoted on death of Canning, 
 238. 
 
 George IH, anecdote of, 75n. ; un- 
 popularity of, 97 ; Canning's 
 speech on Windsor establishment 
 quoted, 254. 
 
 George IV., unpopularity of, 97 ; (as 
 Regent), negotiations for a 
 Cabinet on death of Perceval, 1 1 1 ; 
 treatment of Queen Caroline, 122 
 et seq. ; attitude towards Canning, 
 124-126, 187, 234; (as Regent), 
 refusal to sign the Holy Alliance, 
 131 ; relations with Metternich, 
 146, 186. 
 
 Gibbon, Edw, 28, 32n, 43 ; — quoted, 
 
 38- 
 
 Gifford, J., editor of the Anti-Jacobin, 
 44, 51 ; Connection with Canning, 
 256. 
 
 Gillray, J., 47, Cartoon by, 77 ; rela- 
 tions and correspondence with 
 Canning, 257 i^nd note, 
 
 Girondists, the, 42. 
 
 Gladstone, Sir John, Canning the guest 
 of, 113. 
 
 Gladstone, William Ewart, affection for 
 Canning, 24, 238-239 ; style of 
 oratory, 250, 255 ; unpopularity 
 of, after 1846, 261 ; policy 275-276. 
 
 Goderich, Viscount, Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, 192 ; attitude towards 
 free trade, 193 ; character of, 222 ; 
 raised to the peerage, 23 1 ; premier- 
 ship of, 235 ; friendship for Can- 
 ning, 237-243. 
 
Index 
 
 287 
 
 Godwin,, relations with Canning, 32- 
 
 33. 33"- 
 
 Goethe, 45. 
 
 Gordon, Duchess of, 27. 
 
 Goulburn, 197. 
 
 Gower, Earl, 22. 
 
 Grafton, Duke of, 22. 
 
 Granville, Lord, Canning's Correspond- 
 ence with, quoted 154, 186-187, 
 256. 
 
 Grattan, Henry, 255. 
 
 Greeks, revolt against Turkey, 205 
 et seq. ; distrust of England, 267 ; 
 Canning's policy regarding, 270. 
 
 Grenville, Lord, relations with Pitt 31, 
 55 et seq., 247 ; resignation of, 62 ; 
 in "All the Talents," 68; dis- 
 missal from office, 69 ; friendship 
 for Canning, 243. 
 
 Greville, Journals, I47n. 
 
 Grey, Earl, 23, 28, 35, 48, 68, icon, 
 III, iSgn, policy of, 48-49, 71, 
 73, attack on Canning, 77, 234- 
 23s ; attitude towards Danish 
 smuggling, 79. 
 
 Gustavus, King of Sweden, 75, 76, 77. 
 
 Habeas Corpus suspension, 120. 
 
 Hall, Hubert, 16. 
 
 Hamilton, Lady Ann, 890. 
 
 Hammond, Geo., 55-56, 86. 
 
 Hansard, reference to, 251. 
 
 " Hardwicke Club," the, 30. 
 
 Hare, 28. 
 
 Harford, "Recollections" of, 43n. 
 
 Hart, Sir Anthony, appointed Chan- 
 cellor of Ireland, 232. 
 
 Hastings, Marquis of, IXI ; Canning's 
 correspondence with, Ii7n; Vice- 
 roy of India, 118; Pindaris routed 
 by, 118, influence on Canning's 
 Indian policy, 119. 
 
 Hawkesbury, Perceval, 62n, 69. 
 
 Hazlitt, Wm., 15. 
 
 Heine, H., quoted, 266. 
 
 Heligoland, occupation of, 79. 
 
 Hetaeria Philike, the, 206. 
 
 Hickel, Anton, 36. 
 
 Hill, Frank H., II. 
 
 Hobhouse, Sir J. C. , 260. 
 
 Holland House, iii. 
 
 Holland, Lady, 236. 
 
 Lord, 26, 243 ; attitude 
 
 towards Canning, 32, 251, 26ln. 
 
 Holy Alliance, the, reception by the 
 European Sovereigns, 131 ; de- 
 scribed by Gentz, 133; aims of, 
 138, 139, 146, 271 ; England's posi- 
 
 tion defined, 140- 141; withdrawal 
 from, 145 ; results of, 143, 178 ; 
 memoir of Castlereagh to, 144 ; 
 Congress at Verona, 154-159; 
 attitude towards the Monroe 
 doctrine, 184 ; fall of, 190 ; over- 
 tures to Portuguese king, 197-198 ; 
 intrigue in Portugal, 201-202 ; 
 Canning on the breakdown of, 
 quoted, 218 ; — policy towards, 270- 
 274. 
 
 Horner, Fr., Bullion Committee of 
 1810, connection with, 113. 
 
 ' ' Hookhara Frere and his Friends," 
 Festing, 15, 62n, 64n, 65n, 66n, 
 67n, i6on, 24on, 242n, 244n. 
 
 Howick, Lord, see Grey, Earl. 
 
 Hugessen, attacks on Canning, 233. 
 
 Hugo, Victor, quoted, 42. 
 
 Hundred Days, the, 115. 
 
 Hunn, M., 19. 
 
 Huskisson, Rt. Hon. W., 114 ; Bullion 
 Committee of 1810, conpection 
 with, 113 ; President of the Board 
 of Trade, 192 ; attitude towards 
 Free Trade, 193 ; connection with 
 Corn Law Relief Bill, 225 ; in Can- 
 ning's Cabinet, 230 ; friendship 
 for Canning, 336, 243. 
 
 Ibrahim, cruelties of, in Greece, 215- 
 
 217, 219 ; Morca devastated by, 
 
 220. 
 India, Canning President of Board of 
 
 Control, 117 ; trade with England, 
 
 118. 
 Inquisition re-introduced into Spain by 
 
 Ferdinand, 155 ; imposition of, 
 
 in New World, 173. 
 Isnard, quoted, 40. 
 Iturbide, 185. 
 Ivernois, 13. 
 
 Jackson, Dean, 22, 25. 
 
 Jackson, ambassador to Denmark, 74, 
 
 75, 76 ; account of the Tilsit 
 
 Treaty, 92n ; connection with 
 
 Canning, 264. 
 Jacobins, influence of, 39-40, 42, loi ; 
 
 principles of, 45 et seq. ; alliance 
 
 against, 130. 
 Jamaica, attitude on the Slave question, 
 
 196-197. 
 Java, given up by Castlereagh, 129. 
 Jfna, victory of, 70. 
 Jenkinson, see Liverpool, Lord. 
 Johnson, Dr., quoted, 27. 
 Junot, advance into Portugal, 80, 81. 
 
288 
 
 Index 
 
 Juntas, provisional Spanish Govern- 
 ments, 88, 136, 174. 
 
 Kanares, Constantine, 209. 
 Kant, I, 270. 
 Kaunitz, Prince, 40, 
 Kloest, Sir Jacobi, 84. 
 Kolokotrones, genius of, 209 ; im- 
 prisoned by the Greeks, 310. 
 Kotzebue, A., 45. 
 Knight, Payne, 48, 51. 
 Knighton, Sir William, 32, i86n. 
 
 Lafayette, 49. 
 
 Lamb, Chas., 48. 
 
 Lambton, motion of, regarding the 
 
 Lisbon Embassy, 116. 
 Landor, R., 15. 
 Lansdowne, Marquis of, policy, 28, 
 
 49, 231- 
 Lawrence, Sir Thomas, 161. 
 Laybach, Holy Alliance at, I3ln, 144, 
 
 14s, 146, iss. 
 Leeds, Duke of, 31, 32n. 
 Legh, 57. 
 
 Leigh, Revd. Mr., 240. 
 Legitimacy, principles of, see also 
 
 Holy Alliance, 128, I44, I46, 1 78, 
 
 189, 198, 203. 
 Lepaux, La Reveillere, 47, 48. 
 Liberalism, outbreak in Southern 
 
 Europe, 139 et seq. 
 Lieven, Prince, at Verona Congress, 
 
 160; intrigues with George IV., 
 
 186. 
 , Princess, 14, 126, 160, 161, 
 
 187. 
 " Life and Times of George Cann- 
 ing," 10, 4in. 
 " Life of Lord Liverpool," 15, 930., 
 
 225n. 
 "Life of Scott," 15. 
 •' Life of Stratford Canning," 142, 212, 
 
 2i4n., 26on. 
 Limited Service Bill, 96. 
 "Lisbon Job," n6. 
 Lisle, negotiations at, 44, 92. 
 Literary Fund Club, 257. 
 Liverpool, Lord, 26, 31, 36, lig, 135 ; 
 relations with Canning, 25, no, 
 
 III, 125, 243, premiership of, in ; 
 correspondence with Canning, 
 
 1 19 ; inquiry against Queen 
 Caroline, 124 ; illness and death 
 of, 225, policy and character of, 
 226. 
 Liverpool, Canning M.P. for, 113. 
 Lockhart, John, 15. 
 
 Londonderry, Lord, 215 ; attacks on 
 Canning, 233 ; anecdote of, 246. 
 
 Loughborough, 60. 
 
 Louis XVni., attitude towards Holy 
 Alliance, 131, 158, 161 ; Ferdin- 
 and's appeal to, 156. 
 
 Louise, ex-empress, 160. 
 
 " Loves of the Vegetables," 48. 
 
 Lyndhurst, Lord, made Chancellor of 
 England, 232 ; speech of 251, 
 Canning's correspondence with 
 252. 
 
 Mackenzie, connection with Tilsit 
 Treaty, 91-93. 
 
 Mackintosh, Sir James, 15, loon. 
 quoted on death of Canning, 238 ; 
 aided by Canning, 257. 
 
 " Maeviad,' the, 44 
 
 Mahan, quoted, 128. 
 
 Maitland, Sir, Thomas, 210, 211. 
 
 Malmesbnry, Lord, 15, 62, 44, 93n., 
 261, 263n. ; peace mission to 
 Lisle, S4-S7 Canning's correspond- 
 ence with 56. 
 
 Manners, Lord, 232. 
 
 Marengo, 42, 62. 
 
 Maret, 57. 
 
 Maria, Donna, the Constitutional 
 Charter accepted by, 201 ; 
 marriage of, 267. 
 
 Harriot, J. A. R. II, I42n., 348n. 
 
 Marten, " Precis du droit de Gens," 
 146. 
 
 Maurice, Sir Frederick, 86n., Sgn. 
 
 Maxwell, Sir Herbert, 15. 
 
 Melville, Lord, 42, 43, oratory of, 35 ; 
 in Pitt's Cabinet, 62, 63, 66 ; fall 
 of, 66-67, 232 ; resignation of, 
 230 ; Godfather to Canning's son, 
 242. 
 
 " Memoirs of George Canning," 10. 
 
 Metternich, Memoirs of, 14, 133, 
 I49n., connection with Holy 
 Alliance, 131 and note, 132, 133, 
 146, diplomacy at Aix-la-Chapelle, 
 134; — at the Verona Congress, 
 158 ; persecutions of, 138 ; 
 attitude towards Canning's policy, 
 145, 212, 273 ; relations with 
 Castlereagh, 147-150; character 
 of, 160, intrigues with George IV, 
 186 ; policy towards Brazil, 200 ; 
 intrigue in Portugal, 201 ; policy 
 during Greek revolution, 214 ; 
 interference with the Porte 
 negotiations, 217-218 ; assent to 
 the Protocol, 218. 
 
Index 
 
 289 
 
 Mexico, report of Commission on, 185 ; 
 recognition of, 187. 
 
 " Microcosm," Canning's contribu- 
 tions, 23, 24, 44, 210. 
 
 Miguel, Don, connection with the 
 Absolutists, 198 ; banishment of, 
 201 ; helped by Ferdinand 202 ; 
 marriage of, to Donna Maria, 
 267. 
 
 Mill, James, quoted, loon. ; aided by 
 Canning, 262. 
 
 Mina, Spanish leader, 166. 
 
 Mirabeau, relations with Canning, 31. 
 
 Missolonghi, Turks driven from, 209. 
 
 Mitchell, connection with Tilsit Treaty, 
 92. 
 
 Modena, Duke of, 160. 
 
 Moira, Lord, see Hastings, Marquis of, 
 
 Moldavia, invaded by Ypsilanti, 205. 
 
 Monck, Dr., 249. 
 
 Monroe Doctrine, I78n ; way prepared 
 for, by Canning's policy, 179, 181, 
 182 ; development of, 183. 
 
 " Monroe Doctrine," Redda way's, 14. 
 
 Monteagle, Lord, quoted, 255. 
 
 Montevideo, 177. 
 
 Montmorency, French envoy, at Verona 
 Congress, 158, 159 ; dismissal 
 from office,' 163. 
 
 Moody, J., 20, 21 
 
 Moore, Sir John, Diary of, reference to, 
 13, appointed to command in 
 Portugal, 86-87 ; indecision of, 
 86n. ; death at Corunna, 87. 
 
 Moore, Thomas, 15, Satire of, 50 ; 
 quoted, 77, 187, 224, 249 ; friend- 
 ship for Canning, 243, 246. 
 
 More, Hannah, 19. 
 
 Morea, insurrection in, 206 ; Turkish 
 invasion of 209 ; devastated by 
 Ibrahim, 220 ; freed by France, 
 222. 
 
 Moreau, 62. 
 
 Morley, Lord, See Boringdon, Lord. 
 
 Mornington, Earl of, 36, 44. 
 
 Mostyn, Sir Thomas, 232. 
 
 Moultrie, J., 23. 
 
 " Mrs. Brownrigg the Prentice-cide," 
 44. 
 
 Mulgrave, Lord, 6;. 
 
 Munro, appointment of, 118. 
 
 Napier, Macvey, 33n, lOOn. 
 
 Naples, revolt in, 143 ; Austrian 
 
 intervention, 144, 145, 149. 
 " Napoleon et Alexandre," Vandal's, 
 
 IS- 
 Narvaez, 169, 
 
 Navarino, battle of, 220 ; Government's 
 
 action after, 221. 
 Navigation X^ws, 193. 
 Nelson, Horatio, at Trafalgar, 81, 83 j 
 
 Wellington's opinion of, 227 ; 
 
 friendship with Canning, 243. 
 Nesselrode, at the Verona Congress, 
 
 160, Protocol signed with 
 
 Wellington, 217. 
 "New Morality," the, 44, 46-48, 49, 
 
 Si- 
 Newcastle, Duke of, opposition to 
 
 Canning's Premiership, 228 ; 
 
 attacks on Canning, 233. 
 Newton, J. F., 15, 25, 26ln. ; 
 
 Canning's correspondence with, 26. 
 Nicholas, Czar, negotiations with 
 
 Canning, 216, 265. 
 "Nineteenth Century," 15. 
 Norfolk, Duke of, 49, 106. 
 North, Lord, Frederic, administration 
 
 of, 17 ; in Greece, 209. 
 Northumberland, Duke of., 49, 
 Nugent, Lord, in Spain, 166 ; Canning's 
 
 famous passage on, quoted, 252. 
 
 Oak and the Stream," 44. 
 
 O'Donnell, 169. 
 
 Ogden, case of, 122. 
 
 O'Meara, Napoleon's correspondence 
 
 with I29n. 
 Order in Council of Nov. 1807, 
 
 attributed to Canning, 82. 
 Oxford, Canning at, 25-26. 
 
 Facte Famille, the, 163, 167, 176. 
 
 Paez, 174. 
 
 Paine, Tom, 33. 
 
 Palmerston, Lord, 117; in Canning's 
 Cabinet, 231 ; influence on the 
 Whig party, 235 ; policy of, 274- 
 276, 278. 
 
 Panama Congress of 1826, 188. 
 
 Pascal's Letters, 52. 
 
 Pasha, All, insurrection of, 206 ; defeat 
 and death of, 209. 
 
 Patras 221. 
 
 Pedro, Don, made emperor of Brazil, 
 199 ; slave trade in Brazil abolished 
 under, 200 ; constitution granted 
 to Portugal under, 201-202. 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, 22, 90, 117, contrastd 
 with Canning, 104 ; Catholic 
 Emancipation Act carried by, 
 107 ; attitude towards Canning, 
 229-230, 233 ; policy of, 261. 
 
 Pelham, Lord, 62. 
 
 Peishwa, deposition of the, 118, 
 
290 
 
 Index 
 
 Perceval, Spencer, relation with 
 Canning, iio-iii, 122; death of, 
 III. 
 
 "Perceval," Spencer Walpole's, 15- 
 
 Peru, independence of, 174 ; report 
 of commission, 186. 
 
 Peterloo, battle of, 120. 
 
 Petty, Lord Henry, 69. 
 
 Phillpotts, Dr., 251, 259. 
 
 Piedmont, revolt in, 143, 145 ; evacu- 
 ation by Austrian troops requested 
 by Canning, 154. 
 
 Pierrepoint, English ambassador in 
 Sweden, 76, 77. 
 
 "Pilot that weathered the storm," 64. 
 
 Pindar, Peter, see Wolcot, Dr. 
 
 Pindaris, the, rout of, by Hastings, 118. 
 
 " Pitt Club," 64. 
 
 Pitt, William, 22, 23, 117, coalition 
 with Fox, 31-32, 66 ; policy of, 
 31, 42, 62, 136, 174; relations 
 with Canning, 11, 34, 57-58, 5l, 
 63-64, 66, 68 ; style of oratory, 
 35-36, 250 contributions to the 
 Anti-Jacobin, 44 ; the Directory, 
 negotiations with, 54 et seq. ; 
 character and friendships of, 55, 
 63-64, 67-68 ; Grenville and, 
 relations between, ^^eiseq. ; policy 
 of, defended by Canning, 57 ; 
 resignation of, 60-61 ; attitude 
 towards the Peace Proposals of 
 Bonaparte, 62 ; retirement of, 
 62 ; ministry of, in 1804, 66 ; 
 death of, 67 ; subsidy policy of, 
 67-68, 83, 105 ; connection with 
 Castlereagh, I50n., attitude 
 towards slave-trade, 194 ; 
 
 Canning's love for, 243 ; learning 
 of, 247 ; salary and pension of, 
 258. 
 
 Pizarro, 173. 
 
 Planta, connection with Canning, 257, 
 26ln. ; quoted, 260. 
 
 Plunket, Lord, 231, 255. 
 
 Plymley, Peter, letters of, see Smith, 
 Sydney. 
 
 Polignac, French ambassador, relations 
 with Canning, 180, 272-273 ; — 
 Memorandum, 181. 
 
 " Political Life of Canning,'' 10. 
 
 Ponsonby, appointment of, by Canning, 
 98n. ; quoted, 188. 
 
 Poole, S. L., 14, 142, 2i2n., 2i4n., 
 2i5n., 2i7n, 220n, 26on. 
 
 Pope, satire of, 50 ; letters of, 248. 
 
 Porte, policy towards Russia, 207 ; 
 demands of the Powers rejected by, 
 
 214 ; England's apology to the, 221- 
 222. 
 
 Portland, Duke of, 22, 28 ; politics of ' 
 31-32; Ministry of, 69, 89-90; 
 in Canning's Cabinet, 231. 
 
 Portugal, effect of Berlin Decree on 
 policy of, 72 ; Canning's policy 
 towards, 79 ; closure of ports by 
 Napoleon, 80 ; blockade of the 
 fleet, 8o-8i ; Canning's visit to, as 
 ambassador extraordinary, 115 ; 
 return of king from Brazil, and 
 overtures from the Holy Alliance, 
 197-198; troops sent by Canning, 
 198-199,203; Brazil and, relations 
 between, 199, 201 ; establishment 
 of the Regency, 201 ; Wellington's 
 policy towards, 267. 
 Portugal, Prince Regent of, flight to 
 Brazil, 81 ; information regard- 
 ing the Tilsit Treaty, 93 ; return 
 to Portugal, IIS; question in 
 the House of Commons, 116. 
 
 Praed, W. satire of, 50. 
 
 Press, the. Canning quoted on, 102- 
 103. 
 
 Priestley, 48. 
 
 " Progress of Civil Society," 48. 
 
 " Progress of Man," 44. 
 
 Prothero, R.E., 32n. 
 
 Prussia, Napoleon's Conquests in, 70- 
 7 1 ; attitude towards Holy Alliance, 
 131 ; policy at Verona Congress, 
 158. 
 
 Pulteney, 232. 
 
 Pye, Poet-Laureate, 249. 
 
 Quarterly Review, 93n., 248n. 
 
 Raffles, Sir Stamford, 129. 
 
 Rajputana, placed under British con- 
 trol, 118. 
 
 " Recollections of Canning" 15. 
 
 " Recollections of Wilberforce," 43n. 
 
 Reddaway, 14, I78n., i8in. 
 
 Reddish, S., 19. 
 
 Rede, L. T., 10. 
 
 Reform Bill, effects of, 95 ; first 
 opinions regarding, 100. 
 
 Reformation, the, effects of, 39. 
 
 Reformers, the, led by Grey, 48. 
 
 Reis Effendi, the, Wellington's letters 
 to, 217. 
 
 Rewbell, 55. 
 
 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 28. 
 
 Ribeaupierre, Russian ambassador in 
 Turkey, 212. 
 
 Richards, Dr., 21, 
 
Index 
 
 291 
 
 Richelieu, 279. 
 
 Riego, Spanish leader, 155, 167. 
 
 Rio, treaty signed at, 200, 
 
 Rist, Mr., Danish ambassador in 
 England, 73. 
 
 Robinson, David, 256. 
 
 , F., see Goderich, Viscount. 
 
 , Perdita, 187. 
 
 Rockingham, Marquis of, 22. 
 
 Rogers, poems of, 247. 
 
 Romana, Spanish General, 78, 87. 
 
 Rose, Dr., 13, 76, 92n. 
 
 , George, Sin. 
 
 Rosebery, Lord, 15. 
 
 Roskilde, Danish defeat-at, 75. 
 
 Rousseau, J. J., 48 ; quoted, 39. 
 
 "Rovers," the, 45. 
 
 Rowley MSS., the, 17. 
 
 Royal Institution of Liverpool, created 
 by Canning, 257. 
 
 Rush, United States ambassador, diary 
 of, 14, 125-126 ; negotiations with 
 Canning, 179, 181 ; Canning's 
 influence on, 264, 265. 
 
 Russell, Earl., attitude towards Reform 
 Bill, loi ; Recollections, quoted, 
 232n. 
 
 Russell, G. G., 16 
 
 Russia, see also Alexander, Czar, war 
 with Turkey, 222 ; — with Eng- 
 land, 278 ; Austria helped by, 
 274. 
 
 Rutland, Duke of, 228. 
 
 St. Domingo, I78n. 
 
 St. Vincent, Earl, blockade of French 
 coasts, 83. 
 
 Salisbury, Lady, 27. 
 
 San Martin, 174. 
 
 Schiller, 45. 
 
 Scott, Miss Joan (wife of George 
 Canning), 240-241 ; pamphlet of, 
 241. 
 
 , Sir John, 122. 
 
 , Sir Walter, anecdote of Cann- 
 ing, 32 ; quoted, 77 ; on Cann- 
 ing's character, 90, 91 ; anecdote 
 of, 98 ; aided by Canning, 257, 
 262. 
 
 Seaforth, Lord, 23, 24, 61, 67, 237, 
 24s, 259. 
 
 Seignobos, 15. 
 
 Selwyn, George, 28, 245. 
 
 Sheffield, Lord, 32n. 
 
 Shelley, Mrs., reference to "Franken- 
 stein," 196. 
 
 , Percy B., satire of, 50. 
 
 Sheridan, Mrs., 28, 
 
 Sheridan, R. B., 15, 32, 48 ; relations 
 
 with Canning, 21, 31, 77, 243; 
 
 style of, 29 ; character etc., 30 ; 
 
 oratory of, 35, 225 ; satire of, 51 ; 
 
 Canning's kindness to, 256. 
 Sicily, government of, 137 ; revolt in, 
 
 143- 
 
 Sidmouth, see Addington, Henry. 
 
 Sinclair, Sir John, 248. 
 
 Singapore, development, of, 1 29. 
 
 Six Acts, the, 120. 
 
 Slave Trade, abolition of. Canning's 
 speech on, 194 ; Fox's measure, 
 194, Canning's attempts, 194-195 ; 
 Canning's proposals carried, 195- 
 196 ; abolished in Brazil, 200-201. 
 
 Smith, Adam, 9, 265. 
 
 , Admiral Sir Sidney, 
 
 commander of English fleet in the 
 Tagus, 80 ; Wellington's opinion 
 of, 227 ; character of, 245 ; helped 
 by Canning, 256. 
 
 , Bobus, 23, 24. 
 
 . J-. 23,24. 
 
 -, Sydney, 15, quoted, 4, 69, 78, 
 
 245. 
 
 Smollett, T, 18, 49. 
 
 Somerset, Lord Fitzroy, 163. 
 
 " Song of Rogero," 44, 45, 46, 51. 
 
 Sorel, 15, 62n., 85n. 
 
 South American Colonies, attitude 
 towards Continental System, 81 ; 
 loyalty of, to Spain, 173-174 ! 
 England's attitude, towards, 175, 
 recognition of, 184, 187 ;— results 
 of igo ; Canning's ' Commission 
 of Inquiry, despatch of, 181 ; — 
 return of, 185. 
 
 Southey, Robert, 48, 51 ; aided by 
 Canning, 257. 
 
 Souza, M. de Portuguese ambassador 
 in England, 80, 81, 84, 93n. ; 
 correspondence with Canning, 
 quoted, 85-86. 
 
 Spain, Ferdinand of, see Ferdinand 
 VII of Spain. 
 
 Spain, Napoleon's policy towards, 84 ; 
 revolts in, 143, 146, 155; Cann- 
 ing's policy towards, 156 ; 
 Castlereagh's instructions, 156 ; 
 satisfaction demanded by England 
 for depredations on shipping, 162 ; 
 French invasion of, 166 ; evacu- 
 ation of, 190 ; constitutional 
 government for. Canning's attitude, 
 168-170 ; Canning's proposals re- 
 garding Cuba, 184-185 ; Colonies, 
 see South American Colonies. 
 
292 
 
 Index 
 
 Spencer, Herbert, 48, 
 
 Lady Elizabeth, 240. 
 
 Stamp, A. E., 16. 
 
 Stanhope, Earl, 28, 33, 48. 
 
 Stapleton, A. G., 13, 86n, 140, — " Life 
 and Times," 10, 13, 4in ; — 
 " Political Life," 10, 13, I44n, 
 i68n, 1760, 275n, account of Tilsit 
 Treaty, 91, 92 ; on Canning's 
 oratory, 254 ; attitude towards 
 Canning, 177, 26in. 
 
 E. J., 13 ; Correspondence, 
 
 1520, i86n, i88n, I95n, 2i9n, 
 225n, 2s6n, 269n. 
 
 G. C., "George Canning and 
 
 his Times," 259n. 
 
 State Papers, reference to, — Order in 
 Council of Nov. 1807, 82n ; note 
 of Jan. 1821, 145; State paper of 
 May 5th, 1820, 140-141, 143, 145, 
 150, ISS, 156, 197 ; Castlereagh's 
 note of Jan. 19th, 1821, 145 ; 
 Canning's declaration regarding 
 the Spanish Colonies, 179 ; Polig- 
 nac Memorandum, 181 ; Protocol 
 of April 4th, 1826, 217. 
 
 Stein, revolutionist, 13. 
 
 Stewart, Ambassador at Vienna, cor- 
 respondence with Castlereagh, 13, 
 140, 143, 144 ; at Troppau and 
 Laybach, 143, 145. 
 
 Strangford, Lord, Canning's corre- 
 spondence with, 81, 264; ambass- 
 ador to reconcile Porte and Czar, 
 207, 208 ; reprimanded by Can- 
 ning, 215. 
 
 Stuart, Sir Chas., 215; Canning's 
 correspondence with, 165, 177 ; 
 mission to Lisbon, 200-201. 
 
 Subsidy, Pitt's policy of, 67-68, 83 ; 
 Canning's, 83-84. 
 
 Sucre, 174. 
 
 Sweden, see also Gustavus, 75-77. 
 
 Talavera, 88. 
 
 Talleyrand, 57, 76, 150; connection 
 with the Tilsit Treaty, 92-93 ; at 
 the Vienna Congress, 128 ; opinion 
 of Castlereagh, 129 ; policy of non- 
 intervention adopted by, 273-274 ; 
 Memoirs, 2730. 
 
 Taylor, Sir Brook, Canning's corres- 
 pondence with, 73, 92n. 
 
 Temperley, E. W. P., 16. 
 
 Test Act, repeal opposed by Canning, 
 104. 
 
 " The Life," 10. 
 
 Thelwall, 49. 
 
 Thurlow, Lord, 31, 260. 
 
 Tickell, 245. 
 
 Tierney, Geo., 35 j quoted, 59; policy 
 
 of, 171 ; made Master of the Mint, 
 
 231. 
 Tilsit, treaty of, 72, 91-93. 
 Titchfield, Lord, 242. 
 Tooke, Home, 33 ; policy of, 48, 49. 
 "Tom Moore's Diary," 15, l86n. 
 Tories, Canning's diiference with the, 
 
 II3-II4- 
 
 Trade, English, effect of Continental 
 system on, 79 ; effect of neutral 
 trade on, 82, 83 ; development of, 
 in South America, 187 ; value of 
 export, with South America, 189 
 and note. 
 
 Trafalgar, 66, 81, 83. 
 
 Treaties — 
 
 Tilsit, 72, 91-93 ; England and 
 Portugal, 80 ; England and Swe- 
 den, 75-77 ; England, France, and 
 Russia, 219. 
 
 Trinadad, selected for experiment in 
 anti-slavery, 194. 
 
 Tripolitza, massacre at, 215. 
 
 Trocadero, storming of, 166. 
 
 Troppau, Congress at, 131, 132, 143, 
 155; results of, 143-144;— Circular, 
 
 '44- „ . 
 
 Turkey, see also Porte, the, Grecian 
 revolt against, 146 ; policy towards 
 Russia, 208, refusal of the pro- 
 posed armstice, 220. 
 
 Turner, Sharon, 84n. 
 
 " Twenty Questions," game of, pro- 
 posed by Canning, 244. 
 
 Ulm, 66. 
 
 Ultras, the opposition to Canning, 228, 
 229. 
 
 Union, Irish Act of, 105, Castlereagh's 
 connection with, 147. 
 
 United States, foreign policy of, 178 ; 
 Canning's policy towards, 179, 
 181, 278, 279 ; attitude towards 
 Canning's proposed joint declar- 
 ation, 179-182 ; declared the first 
 power in the New World, 182 ; 
 European attitude towards the 
 declaration, 184; South American 
 Colonies recognised by, 187. 
 
 Vandal, Albert, 15. 
 
 Vansittart, N., letters of, reference to, 
 62n. financial resolutions of, 113- 
 114, 121 ; relation with Canning, 
 119, 230. 
 
Index 
 
 293 
 
 Vattel, 270. 
 
 Vaudois, the, 154. 
 
 Venezuela, independence of, 174. 
 
 Verona, Congress at, 14, 154-159 ; — 
 results of, 159-162. 
 
 Villele, French Premier, 156; policy 
 of, 159, 176, 178; policy 
 of non-intervention declared, by 
 185 ; imitator of Canning, 199. 
 
 Vienna Congress, the, 127-129, 154, 
 194 ; — " Ninth Article of Vienna," 
 
 «34. 135. 141- 
 Vimiera, 85. 
 Vrione, Omar, 215. 
 
 Walcheren expedition, 89, 
 
 Walpole, Horace, 51-55 ; letters of, 
 248. 
 
 Spencer, I4n., 15. 
 
 Ward, R. P., 15. 
 
 Wartburg Festival, 138. 
 
 Waterloo, 128. 
 
 Wellesley, Marquis of, friendship for 
 Pitt, 63 ; failure to form a Cabinet, 
 III; Indian rule of, 117, 118; 
 learning of, 247. 
 
 Sit Henry, 138, I56n., I78n., 212, 
 
 215. 
 
 Duke of, despatches of, 14, i67n., 
 
 I76n., I78n., 2o8n., 2i9n., 22in., 
 228n., Danes defeated at Roskilde 
 by, 75 ; despatched to Spain, 85 ; 
 supreme command in Portugal, 
 88 ; politics of, 94 ; attitude 
 towards the first Reform Bill, 
 100 ; Catholic emancipation Act, 
 carried by, 107 ; relations with 
 Canning, 125, 135, 186, 227-230, 
 233, 264 ; correspondence with 
 Canning, 14S-146. I7S-I76; 
 departure for Verona, 153, 158 ;— 
 Canning's instructions to, 154, 
 et seq. ; — speech at Verona, and 
 refusal to sign the frocks verbale, 
 159 ; — result of policy, 1 59 161 ; 
 mission to Russia, 216; Protocol 
 signed by, 217 ; diplomatic indis- 
 cretions of, 217 ; attitude towards 
 Protocol and treaty of 1826, 220- 
 221 ; Ministry of, 222-235 ; Turkish 
 
 policy of, 222 ; rival of Canning, 
 226 ; political abilities, 226-227 > 
 resignation of, 230 ; amendment 
 to the Corn Law Amendment 
 Bill, 235-236 ; Portuguese and 
 French policy, 267 ; opinions of 
 Canning's policy, 270. 
 
 "Wellington," Maxwell's, 15. 
 
 Westmoreland, Earl of, policy of, 186 ; 
 retirement of, 230. 
 
 Whigs, Canning's secession from, 33 ; 
 led by Sheridan and Fox, 48 ; 
 attacked by the Anti-Jacobin, 48- 
 49 ; Cabinet not recognised by, 99 ; 
 attitude towards Reform, loi ; 
 attacks on Canning, 116; attitude 
 towards Queen Caroline, 123, 
 Spanish Policy of, 168 ; Canning's 
 coalition with, 231 ; attitude to- 
 wards Canning's foreign policy, 231. 
 
 Whitbread, S., 18, 35, 114. 
 
 White, Lydia, salons of, 245. 
 
 Wilberforce, W., 15, 42-43, 63, 196 ; 
 quoted, 22, 30, connection with 
 Canning, 252, 254, 255, 258, 259. 
 
 Wilkes, 18. 
 
 Wilson, Sir Robt., I7in ; account of 
 13 ; Connection with Tilsit Treaty, 
 92 ; in Spain, 166 ; Correspon- 
 dence quoted, l8on., 188, 189; 
 relations with Canning, 331, 26ln., 
 262. 
 
 Winchelsea, 90. 
 
 Windham, W. , 22, 28, 35, 68 ; friend- 
 ship for Canning, 243 ; learning 
 and oratory of, 245, 247. 
 
 Wolcot, Dr., 2on, 89n. 
 
 Wordsworth, quoted, 40, 247 ; aided 
 by Canning, 257. 
 
 Woronzow, Count, quoted, 71-72. 
 
 Wynn, Chas., 243. 
 
 Yonge, 15, 93n., 225n. 
 York, Duke of, 107, 224. 
 Young, Arthur, 25. 
 Ypsilanti, Alexander, 205. 
 
 Zea, Spanish Foreign Minister, 189- 
 
 190. 
 Zealand, 76. 
 
 W. JOLLY AND SONS, ALBANY PRESS, ABERDEEN,