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CANNING, GEORGE (1770-1827)
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See also:CANNING, See also:GEORGE (1770-1827) , See also:British statesman, was See also:born in See also:London on the 11th of See also:April 1770. The See also:family was of See also:English origin and had been settled at See also:Bishop's Canynge in See also:Wiltshire. In 1618 a George Canning, son of See also:Richard Canning of Foxcote in See also:Warwickshire, received a See also: An See also:estate of the value of £200 a year was settled on the boy, and he was sent in See also:succession to a private school at See also:Hyde See also:Abbey near See also:Winchester, to See also:Eton in 1781, and to See also:Christchurch, See also:Oxford, in 1787. After leaving Eton and before going to Oxford, he was entered as a student at See also:Lincoln's See also:Inn. At Eton he edited the school See also:magazine, The See also:Microcosm, and at Oxford he took the leading See also:part in the formation of a debating society. He made many See also:friends, and his reputation was already so high that See also:Sheridan referred to him in the See also:House of See also:Commons as a rising See also:hope of the Whigs. According to See also:Lord See also: In a See also:letter to his friend Lord Boringdon (See also: From 18o1 to 1809 he was partly in opposition, partly in office, fighting for the foremost place. Between 1809 and 1822 there was a See also:period of See also:comparative See also:eclipse, during which he was indeed at times in office, but in lesser places than he would have been prepared to accept between 1804 and 1809, and was regarded with See also:general distrust. From 1822 till his See also:death in 1827 he was the most powerful influence in English, and one of the most powerful in See also:European, politics. In the See also:spring of 1796 he was appointed under-secretary for the See also:foreign office, and in the See also:election of that year he was returned for See also:Wendover. He was also appointed See also:receiver-general of the See also:alienation office, a See also:sinecure See also:post which brought him £700 a year. His position as under-secretary brought him into See also:close relations with Pitt and the foreign secretary, Lord See also:Grenville (q.v.). During the negotiations for See also:peace at See also:Lille (1797), Canning was actively concerned in the devices which were employed by Pitt and Grenville to keep the real See also:character of the discussion See also:secret from other members of the See also:cabinet. Canning had a See also:taste for See also:mystery and disguises, which he had shown at Oxford, and which did much to gain him his unfortunate reputation for trickery. From the loth of See also:November 1797, till the 9th of July 1798, he was one of the most active, and was certainly the most witty of the contributors to the See also:Anti-Jacobin, a weekly See also:paper started to ridicule the frothy philanthropic and eleutheromaniac rant of the French republicans, and to denounce their brutal rapacity and See also:cruelty. But Canning's position as under-secretary was not wholly pleasant to him. He disliked his immediate See also:chief Grenville, one of the Whigs who joined Pitt, and a man of thoroughly Whiggish aristocratic insolence. In 1799 he left the foreign office and was named one of the twelve commissioners for See also:India, and in 1800 See also:joint paymaster of the forces, a post which he held till the retirement of Pitt in 18or. During these years of subordinate activity Canning had established his position as an orator and a wit. His See also:oratory cannot be estimated with See also:absolute confidence. Speeches were then badly reported. The See also:text of his own, published by Therry (6 volumes, London, 1828), were revised by himself, and not for the better. Though his favourite author was See also:Dryden, whose See also:prose is uniformly manly and See also:simple, and though he had a keen See also:eye for faults of taste in the See also:style of others, Canning had himself a leaning to preciosity and tinsel. His wit was, and remains, above all question. In public life it did him some harm in the See also:opinion of serious See also:people, who could not believe that so jocose a politician had solid capacity. It exasperated opponents, some of whom, notably See also:Peter See also:Pindar (see See also:WoLCOT, JOHN), retaliated by brutal personalities. Canning was constantly reminded that his See also:mother was a strolling actress, and was accused of foisting his pauper family on the public funds. The See also:accusation was perfectly untrue, but this style of political controversy was See also:common, and was adopted by Canning. He put himself on a level with Peter Pindar when he assailed Pitt's successor Addington (see See also:SIDMOUTH, See also:VISCOUNT) on the ground that he was the son of a See also:doctor. While out of office with Pitt, Canning proved a somewhat insubordinate follower. The snobbery and malignity of his attacks on Addington roused considerable feeling against him, and his attempts to See also:act as a political go-between in ministerial arrangements were unfortunate. On the formation of Pitt's second ministry he took the post of treasurer of the navy on the 12th of May 1804. In office he continued to be insubordinate, and committed mistakes which got him into See also:bad odour as untrustworthy. He endeavoured to persuade Lord Hawkesbury (see See also:LIVERPOOL, EARLS oF) to join in a See also:scheme for turning an old friend out of the India Office. Though his relations with Pitt began to be somewhat strained towards the end, he left office on the minister's death on the 21st of January 18o6.
Canning, who delivered the eulogy of Pitt in the House of Commons on the 3rd of See also:February, refused to take office in See also:Fox's ministry of " all the talents." Attempts were made to secure him, and he was offered the leadership of the House of Commons, under the supervision of Fox, an absurd proposal which he had the See also:good sense to decline. After the death of Fox, and the dismissal by the king of Lord Grenville's ministry, he joined the See also:administration of the See also:duke of See also:Portland as secretary of See also:state for foreign affairs. He held the office from the 25th of See also: He be-came entangled in what can only be called two intrigues. In view of the failing See also:health of the duke of Portland he told his colleague, See also:Spencer See also:Perceval, See also:chancellor of the See also:exchequer, that a new prime minister must be found, that he must be in the House of Commons, that the choice See also:lay between them, adding that he might not be prepared to serve as subordinate. In April of 1809 he had told the duke of Portland that Lord Castlereagh, secretary for the colonies and war, was in his opinion unfit for his post, and must be removed to another office. The duke, a sickly and vacillating man, said nothing to Castlereagh, and took no steps, and Canning did not enlighten his colleague. When he found that no See also:measures were being taken to make a See also:change of office, Canning resigned on the 7th of September. Castlereagh then learnt the truth, and after resigning sent Canning a See also:challenge on the 19th of. September. In the See also:duel on Putney See also:Heath which followed Canning was wounded in the thigh. His apologists have endeavoured to defend him against the See also:charge of See also:double dealing, but there can be no question that Castlereagh had just ground to be angry. Public opinion was strong against Canning, and in the House of Commons he was looked upon with distrust. For twelve years he remained out of office or in inferior places. His ability made it impossible that he should be obscure. In 1810 he was a member of the See also:Bullion See also:Committee, and his speeches on the See also:report showed his mastery of the subject. It was no doubt his reputation for economic knowledge which chiefly recommended him to the See also:electors of Liverpool in 1812. He had been elected for See also:Tralee in 1803, for Newtown (Hants) in 18o6 and for See also:Harwich in 1807. But in parliament he had lost all influence, and is described as wandering about neglected and avoided. In 1812 he committed the serious See also:mistake of accepting a well-paid ornamental See also:mission to See also:Lisbon, which he was about to visit for the health of his eldest son. He remained abroad for eighteen months. In 1816 he submitted to enter office as See also:president of the See also:Board of See also:Control in Lord See also:Liver-See also:pool's cabinet, in which Castlereagh, to whom he had now become reconciled, was secretary of state for foreign affairs. In 1820 he resigned his post in See also:order to avoid taking any part in the proceedings against See also:Queen See also:Caroline, the wife of George IV. Canning's return to great office and influence See also:dates from the See also:suicide of Castlereagh in 1822. He had accepted the See also:governor-generalship of India, which would have implied his retirement from public life at See also:home, and refused to remain unless he was promised " the whole See also:inheritance " of Castlereagh,—the foreign office and the leadership of the House of Commons. His terms were accepted, and he took office in September 1822. He held the office from that date till April 1827, when he became prime minister in succession to Lord Liverpool, whose health had broken down. Even before this he was the real director of the policy of the cabinet—as Castlereagh had been from 1812 to 1822. It may be noted that he resigned his seat for Liverpool in 1823, and was elected for Harwich, which he left for See also:Newport in 1826. Few English public men have represented so many constituencies.
His fame as a statesman is based mainly on the foreign policy which he pursued in those years—the policy of non-intervention, and of the patronage, if not the actual support, of See also:national and liberal movements in See also:Europe (see the See also:historical articles under EUROPE, SPAIN, See also:PORTUGAL, See also:TURKEY, See also:GREECE). To this policy he may be said to have given his name, and he has enjoyed the reputation of having introduced a generous spirit into British politics, and of having undone the See also:work of his predecessor at the foreign office, who was constantly abused as the friend of despotism and of despots. It may well be believed that Canning followed his natural inclinations, and it can be asserted without
the possibility of See also:contradiction, if also without possibility of See also:proof, that he had influenced the mind of Castlereagh. Yet the fact remains that when Canning came into office in September 1822, he found the instructions to be given to the representative of the British See also:government at the See also:congress of See also:Verona already See also:drawn up by his predecessor, who had meant to attend the congress himself (see LONDONDERRY, See also:ROBERT See also: I called the New World into existence to redress the See also:balance of the Old" (December 12, 1826). When Lord Liverpool was struck down in a See also:fit on the 17th of February 1827, Canning was marked out by position as his only possible successor. He was not indeed accepted by all the party which had followed Liverpool. The duke of Wellington, See also:Sir Robert See also:Peel and several other members of the ministry, moved perhaps by personal animosity, and certainly by dislike of his known and consistent advocacy of the claims of the See also:Roman Catholics, refused to serve with him. Canning succeeded in constructing a ministry in April-but the hopes and the fears of friends and enemies proved to be equally unfounded. His health had already begun to give way, and See also:broke down altogether under the See also:strain of the effort required to See also:form his ministry. He had caught See also:cold in January at the funeral of the duke of See also:York, and never recovered. He died on the 8th of See also:August 1827, at See also:Chiswick, in the house of the duke of See also:Devonshire, where Fox had died, and in the same See also:room. See Speeches, with a memoir by R. Therry (London, 1826) ; A.G. Stapleton, Political Life of Canning, 1822–1827 (2nd ed., London, 1831) ; Canning and His Times (London, 1859) ; Lord Dalling and Bulwer, Historical Characters (London, 1868) ; F. H. See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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