118 HIS 'VERS DE SOCIÉTÉ: visit the Crewes of Crewe-Hall, and the Leighs of Well pleased their heartfelt homage pay, A hundred civil speeches; My muse shall strike her tuneful strings, Nor scorn the gift her duty brings, A pair of shooting breeches. "Soon shall the tailor's subtle art, Have made them tight, and spruce, and smart, With twenty thousand stitches; Mark then the moral of my song, Oh! may your loves but prove as strong, As these, my shooting breeches. "And when to ease the load of life, Canning's University career was one of peculiar brilliancy.* His Latin prize poem, 'Iter ad Meccam' * Bentham relates that Lord Lansdowne pointed out Canning to him as a youth likely to become Prime Minister of England. A STUDY OF LAW. 119 (June, 1789) was far above the average of such productions; and its incidental allusion to the Moslem standard, 66 Vexillis fluitantibus intertexta, Sanctum insigne micant crescentis cornua lunæ," has been deservedly praised. His orations attracted attention by their choiceness of phrase, compactness of form, and liberality of sentiment. In the examinations he passed competitors with enviable ease, and all that he did was remarkable for its evidence of refinement, facility, and power. It was with predictions from every quarter of a brilliant career that he left Christ Church, and proceeded to enter himself as a student of law at Lincoln's Inn. London was then in the throes of the Revolutionary panic. Burke's highly-coloured vaticinations and the excesses of the Jacobites had startled the soberer classes of English Society, and induced a great Tory reaction. The Whigs remained true to their traditional policy: and the Whigs, when Canning entered public life, enjoyed an almost undisputed monopoly of intellectual resources,-led by Fox, with Sheridan, Fitzpatrick, Erskine, and Curran as his lieutenants,— and supported by the charms of the Duchess of Devonshire, and the wit and beauty of Mrs. Crewe.* But the Tories had the strength of les gros bataillons on their 66 * Wilberforce preserves one of her happy sayings. So your friend Mr. Pitt means to come in," she said to him in December, 1783; "well, he may do what he likes during the holidays, but it will be only a mince-pie administration, depend on it."- Life, p. 23. Mr. Crewe was raised to the peerage by Fox in 1806. Lord Houghton has made Lady Crewe the subject of one of his graceful monographs. 120 WHIG OR TORY? side. The Revolution haunted like a spectre the daythoughts and night-visions of the aristocracy, the clergy, the landed gentry, the country lawyers, the well-to-do tradesmen; and they all rallied under the Tory banner. They firmly believed in Pitt's unfounded charge against the men of Liberal opinions:- "It is not reform they want, but Revolution"; and they lived in a terrified conviction that these dangerous characters, unless firmly repressed, would decapitate George the 3rd, establish a sans-culotte republic, confiscate their property, overthrow vested interests, and ruin trade. Ruin trade! No other two words in the English language convey to the average British mind such horrible ideas! The English shopkeeper would look on unmoved while a simoon swept past if it did not ruin trade. It might have been supposed that Canning, sprung from the people, imbued with Whig traditions, patronised by the leaders of Whig Society, encouraged by Fox and Sheridan and Grey, would have taken a foremost place in the Whig ranks. But whether his sudden conversion be owing to the influence (as some authorities say) of William Godwin, or (as others say) of his college friend, Jenkinson; whether it be owing to an aristocratic strain in his blood which revolted at the revolutionary principles; or whether, as we are inclined to believe, it originated in a conviction that there was no room for him among the Whigs; certain it is that like another brilliant young adventurer half a century later, he "went over" to the Tories, who, in their then dearth of talent, eagerly welcomed so splendid a recruit. His reputation for wit and eloquence was so great that it FOINS THE TORY PARTY. 121 reached the ears of Mr. Pitt, who would also appear to have been apprised of his intended change of front. The Minister sent for Canning, and after some personal explanations intimated that if he were prepared to support the Government policy, arrangements would be made to bring him into Parliament.* The offer was accepted†; and thus the Tories gained an ally whom they never fully trusted, but with whose services they were never able to dispense.‡ Lady Hester Stanhope professed, in after life, to have been present at this memorable interview; and appears to have taken a dislike to Canning, because his personal appearance displeased her. "The first time he was *He had already refused a seat offered to him by the Whig Duke of Portland. + Therry, i. 17. When Canning had determined on throwing in his lot with Pitt and the Pittites, he repaired to Mr. Sheridan, for whom he entertained a very strong affection, and announced his resolution. Lord Holland, who was present at the interview, told Lord Dalling that "nothing could be more respectful, affectionate, and unreserved, than the manner in which the ambitious young politician gave his reasons for the change he was prepared to make, or had made; nothing more warm-hearted, unprejudiced, and frank, than the veteran orator's reception of his retiring protége's confusion; nor, indeed, could Mr. Sheridan help feeling the application, when he was himself cited as an example of the haughtiness with which 'the great Whig Houses' looked down on the lofty aspirations of mere genius." There were others among the Whigs, however, who looked upon the brilliant young apostate with less favourable eyes; and their sentiments were embodied in a severe stanza by Fitzpatrick: “The turning of coats so common is grown, That no one would think to attack it; But no case until now was so flagrantly known 122 PITT AND CANNING. introduced to Mr. Pitt," she says, *"a great deal of prosing had been made beforehand of his talents, and when he was gone, Mr. Pitt asked me what I thought of him. I said I did not like him; his forehead was bad, his eyebrows were bad, he was ill-made about the hips; but his teeth were evenly set, although he rarely showed them. I did not like his conversation. Mr. Canning heard of this, and some time after, when upon a more familiar footing with me, said, 'So, Lady Hester, you don't like me?' 'No,' said I, 'they told me you were handsome, and I don't think so."" Lady Hester's eccentric conclusions no one would attempt to justify. In Canning's case, as in many other cases, it is difficult to understand how she could draw them from the premises. at her command. Canning's contemporaries all speak of him as rich in physical as well as intellectual gifts. His figure was slight, but graceful; his features were well-formed; and his countenance arrested the spectator's eye by its wonderful play of expression. His address was graceful and dignified; his air that of a "thoroughbred " gentleman; while his voice, though not very strong, was clear, full, and melodious. As for his conversation, it sparkled with the sportiveness and vivacity which we admire in his writings, but was frequently relieved by a deeper shade of thought and feeling. |