DEFENCE OF CLOSE BOROUGHS.

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representatives. Let it have two thousand, with all my heart. I have never stated it as a beauty and perfection of the constitution that this or that great peer should be able to return persons of his choice as the representatives of the people in Parliament. I have never said, that detected corruption should not be punished. In God's name, disfranchise other corrupt boroughs as you disfranchised Grampound. But I have said, and I repeat, that I see no way of counteracting the influence of property, and that I can imagine no process of amputation of close boroughs, -on the ground, not of practical punishment, but of speculative improvement, and on the principle that the House of Commons ought to speak the direct sense of the people, -which does not lead by inevitable influence, to a total alteration of the functions of the House of Commons. If by "people" is meant the nation (and it is in the equivocal use of this word, that much of the fallacy of the argument lies); if an assembly "representing the people" is meant to be the undoubted exclusive organ of national will, I ask, when the nation has even such an organ, what room is there for another legislative establishment? How can a second exist, and what is it to do?

"In the times in which we live, there is (disguise it as we may) a struggle going on,-in some countries an open, and in some a tacit struggle, between the principles of monarchy and democracy. God be praised, that in that struggle we have not any part to take. God be praised, that we have long ago arrived at all the blessings that are to be derived from that which

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alone can end such a struggle beneficially, a compromise and intermixture of those conflicting principles. It is not as it appears to me, the duty of this country to side either with the assailants, where they aim at too much, nor with those who stand on the defensive, when they will grant nothing. England has only to maintain herself on the basis of her own solid and settled constitution, firm, unshaken, a spectatress interested in the contest only by her sympathies; -not a partisan on either side, but, for the sake of both, a model, and ultimately, perhaps, an umpire. Should we be led, by any false impulse of chivalrous benevolence, to participate in the struggle itself, we commit, and thereby impair our authority; we abandon the position in which we might hereafter do most good, and may bring the danger of a foreign struggle home to our own hearths and to our own institutions."

It is unnecessary to offer any remarks on the arguments to which Canning has here resorted. Time has sufficiently exposed their fallacy.

The vacancy at the Foreign Office was not very easily filled. As soon as the King was apprised of Londonderry's death, he wrote to the Prime Minister, requesting him "not to make any proposal at present with a view of supplying the lamentable void," and significantly desiring him "not to interrupt, and on no occasion impede the arrangements which were already settled respecting India, as it was his decision that they should remain final and unalterable." * He

Yonge, 'Life of Lord Liverpool,' iii. 195.

A ROYAL LETTER.

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even canvassed Peel, who was then attending him on his triumphant procession through Scotland, endeavouring to persuade him to accept the office and the leadership of the Commons. Both Peel and Liverpool felt, however, that Canning's accession to the Cabinet was indispensable; and they knew that he would refuse any office which was unaccompanied by the leadership. They had to conquer not only the King's antipathy, but the opposition of Lord Eldon, and the reluctance of most of the Ministers. At length, with the assistance of the Duke of Wellington and the Marchioness of Conyngham, whose influence with the King was only too considerable, every obstacle was removed, and Lord Liverpool received a royal letter which, from the extraordinary character of its terms, deserves to be quoted :

Carlton House, September 8th, 1822.

"The King has given the fullest consideration to the proposition submitted by Lord Liverpool relative to the admission of Mr. Canning into the King's Government.

The King has always been justly impressed with the value of Mr. Canning's talents, and the King had taught himself to believe that such talents might and ought to have been exercised for the benefit of his Sovereign and his country.

When Mr. Canning thought proper to tender his resignation to the King, and to retire from the King's councils, the King expressed to Mr. Canning his regret that the country was to be deprived of his services. It was at this period of time that the King had

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A ROYAL LETTER.

reason to view with surprise the line of conduct which Mr. Canning then, and afterwards, thought proper to adopt.

The King forbears to enter into details; the King is aware that the brightest ornament of his crown is the power of extending grace and favour to a subject who may have incurred his displeasure.

The King therefore permits Lord Liverpool to propose Mr. Canning's readmission into the Government, and the King desires that the communication may be made to Mr. Canning by the transmission of this note."

Canning accepted the olive branch thus graciously held out to him.* The great object of his ambition

* Mr. Greville is responsible for the following interesting details :— 'When the King had consented to receive Canning, he wrote a letter nearly in these words to Lord Liverpool: The King thinks that the brightest jewel in the crown is to extend his forgiveness [I am not sure that this was the word] to a subject who has offended him, and he therefore informs Lord Liverpool that he consents to Mr. Canning forming a part of the Cabinet. This letter was communicated by Lord Liverpool to Canning, and upon reading it he was indignant, as were his wife and daughter. The consequence was, that he wrote a most violent and indignant reply, addressed to the same person to whom the other letter had been addressed, and which was intended in like manner to be shown to the King, as the King's letter was to him. Upon hearing what had passed, however, down came Lord Grenville and Mr. Ellis in a great hurry, and used every argument to dissuade him from sending the letter, urging that he had entirely misunderstood the purport of the letter which had offended him; that it was intended as an invitation to reconciliation, and contained nothing which could have been meant as offensive; that the country would be so dissatisfied (which ardently desired and expected that he should come into office) if he rejected this overture; that he would not be justified in refusing his services to the public, who so anxiously wished for them. These arguments, vehemently urged and put in every possible shape, prevailed, and the angry reply was put in the fire, and another written full of gratitude, duty, and acquiescence."- The Greville Memoirs,' i. 58, 59.

THE PRIZE WON.

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was attained. He had won the prize for which he had worked and waited. He was the Leader of the House of Commons. Yet he seems to have felt some reluctance in abandoning the golden promises and vast possibilities of the Indian Viceroyalty; or he may have imagined when the fruits of victory were really in his grasp, that he cared less for them than was really the case. We get a glimpse of his views and feelings in a private letter, which he at this time addressed to an old friend (Sir Charles Bagot) :

"By far the greater number of considerations," he says, "were against acceptance, and to the last day I hoped that the proposal made to me might be one which I could refuse. That which has been made was the only one that I could not-about any other I should not-have had the slightest hesitation. The die being cast, I must make the best of that lot which has fallen to me, and place public duty against private liking and convenience. But two years 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 1812. 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 meaning of the concluding words is to be arrived at by comparing them with a passage from his speech at Plymouth, a few months later:

"The language of modern philosophy," he said, "is

* Stapleton, George Canning and His Times,' pp. 364, 365.