most formidable enemy of improvement. Founded on such principles, they are at least perfectly innocent: they are such as, even if they were visionary, an admirer or cultivator of letters ought to be pardoned for cherishing. Without them, literature and philosophy can claim no more than the highest rank among the amusements and ornaments of human life. With these hopes, they assume the dignity of being part of that discipline under which the race of man is destined to proceed to the highest degree of civilization, virtue, and happiness, of which our nature is capable. On a future occasion I may have the honor to lay before you my thoughts on the principal objects of inquiry in the geography, ancient and modern, the languages, the literature, the necessary and elegant arts, the religion, the authentic history and the antiquities of India; and on the mode in which such inquiries appear to me most likely to be conducted with success. 1770-1827 George Canning was the offspring of a love-match, his father having married a beautiful girl with a good education but with no fortune. His father died in 1871, and his mother attempted to make a living on the stage; but her beauty had more success than her dramatic talent; she was twice remarried, first to an actor, the last time to a worthy linen draper of Exeter. Canning attended school at Eton, showing himself an able scholar. A literary tendency, derived from his father, prompted him to start and edit a periodical called "The Microcosm,' the commendable prototype of many schoolboy magazines since then. In 1787, at the age of seventeen, he went to Oxford, and enjoyed the advantage of passing his vacations with Sheridan, by whom he was made known to Burke, Fox, and other eminent Whig statesmen. Sheridan formed a high opinion of the youth's abilities, and regarded him as a coming light in the party; and by the influence of William Pitt, he was seated in the House of Commons in 1793. In 1796 he was made Secretary of State, and took up his permanent residence in London. About this time he and some others in sympathy with his ideas founded the "Anti-Jacobin," Canning becoming one of the leading contributors. He joined Wilberforce in the motion to abolish the slavetrade, in 1798; and two years later he confirmed his claim to material as well as political good fortune by marrying Joanna Scott, with a fortune of one hundred thousand pounds sterling. While holding the office of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs under the Portland administration, Canning quarrelled with Castlereagh, and they fought a Iduel, in which Canning was wounded. In 1810 he opposed the reference to the whole House of the Catholic claims, on the ground that the Catholics had offered no security; and on this theme some of his most brilliant speeches were delivered. He advocated Catholic admission not as a right, but as a matter of pure expediency; and this view led him, in 1813, to support the same measure which he had formerly opposed. It was Canning who aimed the first blow at Napoleon, and directed and animated the British policy in Spain; he declared that the English ought never to relinquish their hold on the Peninsula. After two years abroad as minister to Portugal he returned to oppose Lord John Russell's Reform Bill. During the ensuing years he constantly took a leading and influential part in foreign affairs; and in the debate over the proposition to intervene in the dispute between Spain and Portugal, he spoke the well-known words, "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!" In 1827 he was chosen Prime Minister; and on the eighth of August of the same year he died, at the height of his renown. Few statesmen of any country have enjoyed a career of such uninterrupted success. In spite of his fortune, enormous for those days, he is said to have died a poor man. 66 His foreign policy embraced the recognition of the South American states, the maintenance of Portugal's independence, and the treaty in behalf of Greece. His attitude on the question of the British alliance with Portugal is well expressed in his oration, On Granting Aid to Portugal." As an orator he took high rank; his eloquence was persuasive and impassioned, he was lucid and logical in his reasoning, and graceful in expression. His personal appearance was attractive; he had a brilliant wit, and in satire he was caustic and able. At his death it was voted that he be interred in that Valhalla of English statesmen of eminence, Westminster Abbey; and it is there that his remains repose. ON GRANTING AID TO PORTUGAL Delivered in the House of Commons, December 12, 18261 MR R. SPEAKER: In proposing to the House of Commons to acknowledge, by an humble and dutiful address, His Majesty's most gracious message, and to reply to it in terms which will be, in effect, an echo of the sentiments and a fufilment of the anticipations of that message, I feel that, however confident I may be in the justice, and however clear as to the policy of the measures therein announced, it becomes me, as a British minister, recommending to Parliament any step which may approximate this country even to the hazard of a war, while I explain the grounds of that proposal, to accompany my explanation with expressions of regret. I can assure the House that there is not within its walls any set of men more deeply convinced than His Majesty's ministers -nor any individual more intimately persuaded than he who has now the honor of addressing you-of the vital importance of the continuance of peace to this country and to the world. So strongly am I impressed with this opinion-and for reasons of which I will put the House more fully in possession before I sit down-that I declare there is no question of doubtful or controverted policy-no opportunity of present national advantage -no precaution against remote difficulty-which I would not gladly compromise, pass over, or adjourn, rather than call on Parliament to sanction, at this moment, any measure which had a tendency to involve the country in war. But, at the same time, sir, I feel that which has been felt, in the best times 1[In 1826, while Mr. Canning was the English Minister of Foreign Affairs, a body of revolutionary Absolutists attempted to destroy the existing liberal government of Portugal, which had been recognized by all the great powers of Europe. In the course of the insurrection the Absolutists raised a body of troops on Spanish soil, and the Portu guese Government asked for the protection of England. Five thousand troops were immediately sent to Portugal, this being in accordance with Canning's policy of allowing each nation to manage its internal affairs and of permitting no interference with the smaller nations by the larger.-EDITOR.] |