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268

AN "IN MEMORIAM» NO1ICE
RIAM»

In the Times of August 9th, 1827, appeared a striking article upon the deceased statesman :

"The late Prime Minister is the last of five, who may be said to have perished at their posts, within the last 22 years-all, with the exception of Mr. Perceval, sinking under the toils and cares of office, or under vexations incidental to it, and operating on already shattered constitutions. The names of Pitt, Fox, Liverpool and Canning are warnings to political ambition in this country, of the end which too often betides it.

In the prompt and sensitive excitability of Mr. Canning, may be traced the impediments which retarded his final success, and which more than once threatened to frustrate his most aspiring efforts. If Mr. Canning could have subdued for a while the indignation under which he wrought against Lord Castlereagh, by means which afforded his personal enemies a pretext for representing him, though falsely, as an intriguer, the feelings of the other members of the Portland Cabinet would have co-operated with him and with the public voice, and have expelled, with something like contempt, from office, the incompetent author and director of the ruinous Walcheren expedition. The issue of this indiscreet quarrel with Lord Castlereagh was, their simultaneous loss of office, and Mr. Canning's long exclusion. The more plausible and measured temperament of Mr. Canning's adversary introduced him again to power, under Mr. Perceval, in the Department of Foreign Affairs, in which situation he had the good fortune to inflict on Mr. Canning the deep disgrace of an over-paid and unnecessary embassy to Lisbon. This was the real blot on Mr. Canning's political emblazonment, one, indeed, which we are ready to acknowledge that a series of illustrious services have long since compensated and redeemed, if they have not entirely obliterated, but which the faith and moral use of history impose upon us the reluctant duty of here affixing to the name of Mr. Canning.

That the earlier portions of this statesman's life exhibited no evidence compared with that which has flowed from every week and hour of its more recent progress, on which could be established any of Mr. Canning's now indefeasible claims to the reputation of a friend of human liberty, may be accounted for, by the subaltern order of those duties which, until within these three years, and since the overthrow of Bonaparte he had been called upon to discharge. An exception of course will be made for the time during which he filled a cabinet office under Mr. Pitt and the Duke of Portland; but then the great interests of the war swallowed up all questions on which might hinge the fame of a statesman for his free or despotic

FROM "THE TIMES."

269

principles: so that it was not until his acceptance of the post of Foreign Minister, after the self-destruction of Lord Londonderry, that Mr. Canning had at once the forces wherewith to act, and a field on which to display them.

Try the departed statesman by a test like this, and then let every Englishman determine how much he gained by Lord Londonderry's death, and what he has lost in Mr. Canning's!

England was disengaged from the trammels of the Holy Alliance, almost before the familiars of that body could look round them and discover the hand which set her free.

An invasion of Spain, which no reasoning could palliate, was rendered, by Mr. Canning's dexterity and spirit, little more noxious in its result than it was defensible in its origin; and the world saw contrasted an outrage by France upon the Spaniards, which will bring about its own termination and punishment, with a blessing conferred by England on the Americans, which is at once its own guarantee and reward.

Constitutional Portugal has been upheld against the invasion of the house of Bourbon, by diplomatic skill and military energy, so directed, disposed and justified, as to protect according to all reasonable calculation, the civil rights of the people of that kingdom, through the same means and on the same political and international obligations which Mr. Canning has made subservient to the independence of King Pedro's crown.

The spirit through which the whole South of Europe must one day vindicate the liberties which belong to man, has been, though not ostentatiously encouraged, kept alive and ready for seasonable exercise, by the mere notoriety that Mr. Canning was Minister of Great Britain.

At home, whatever has been attempted by his government, has been attempted well, though, thanks to his enemies and those of the people of England it has not been so well accomplished. The principles which he would have realised, had life and power been granted, were those under which the poor man's food would have been increased, and the national expenses economized; of the ornaments and accessories of the deceased Minister, whether as a member of the Senate or of Society, it is not strictly our design to speak. His eloquence-that much and dangerously overvalued art in England-his eloquence was perfect in its peculiar kind. In our minds Canning was not the foremost, though among the foremost, of contemporary speakers. Brougham is more sarcastic, more impetuous, more fruitful, and discursive. Plunkett more logical, forcible and impressive. Nowhere does there now exist the profound, the terrible, or the sublime.

270

AN "IN MEMORIAM" NOTICE.

In private life, and its endearing and sacred relations, Mr. Canning bears the repute of having been an estimable and exemplary person. Sooner or later, even in this world, justice is rendered to us before we die. Let the respective partisans of Canning and Londonderry now meditate. for a moment the place which each of these Ministers of the same kingdom fills in the heart of the people. The memory of the one is embalmed by his countrymen in unaffected sorrow; the remains of the other were loaded with execrations and pelted with ordure at the grave."

BOOK VII.

SIR ROBERT PEEL.

A.D. 1788-1848.

[THE materials for the following sketch have been gathered from a variety of sources, among which we may name Memoirs of the Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, edited by Earl Stanhope and Lord Cardwell; The Political Life of Sir Robert Peel, by Thomas Doubleday; Sir Robert Peel, his Life and Character, by Sir Lawrence Peel; The New Series of the Duke of Wellington's Despatches; The Greville Memoirs; T. Raikes, Journal from 1831 to 1847; Theodore Martin, Life of H. R. H. the Prince Consort; W. M. Torrens, Life of William 2nd Viscount Melbourne; Sir H. L. Bulwer (Lord Dalling) and Evelyn Ashley, Life of Viscount Palmerston; Earl Russell, Selections from Speeches, 1817 to 1841; Field's Life of George Ticknor; Harriet Martineau, History of England during the Thirty Years' Peace; Sir Archibald Alison, History of England from 1815 to 1852; Rev. W. N. Molesworth, History of England from the Year 1830; Lieut. the Hon. A. Grey, Life of Charles, Earl Grey ; A. Hayward, Diaries of a Lady of Quality; The Right Hon. B. Disraeli (Earl of Beaconsfield), Life of Lord George Bentinck; Macknight, Political and Literary Biography of the Right Hon. B. Disraeli, etc. etc. Reference has also been made to Hansard, the Times, the Spectator, and other journals.]

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