Memoirs of the Life of the Right Hon.George Canning (Volume 1) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1828. Excerpt: ... view all that bears upon a question, or that tends to its elucidation, nothing, in fact, of its philosophy. The speeches we have yet read are those of the advocate and the partisan; of the dexterous debater, who is resolved to annoy whom he cannot conciliate, and to rouse into exultation the. party whose cause he undertakes to uphold. We see him, it is true, after the lapse of so many years, in the distance; and the obscurities of time throw a shade around him which we are not able to penetrate. But Mr. Pitt, who was no mean judge of men, saw in him a potent and ready instrument of his will: he selected him from among many competitors and rivals, and continued to regard him with a high and distinguished preference to the day of his death. We may also add, that the subsequent course of his protege fully justified his choice. CHAPTER III. From Mr. Canning's accepting Office till his Retirement with Mr. Pitt in 1801--His Speeches in Parliament--His Marriage--His Contributions to the Anti-Jacobin Examiner. In the new parliament of 1796, Mr. Canning was returned for Wendover, Bucks; and, in the first sessions of that parliament he appeared in his official character as one of the under secretaries of state, to which he was appointed by the premier. Besides the vulgar prejudice entertained against placemen who also occupy seats in parliament, Mr. Canning had to contend with a reproach, most unsparingly cast upon him in the house of commons, that his predecessor had been superannuated on a pension, to make way for his introduction into office, and at a period of life, when, in addition to long experience of the duties he had to perform, he was in the full vigour and maturity of his faculties. Fortunately we have Mr. Canning's defence on both these topics; the one...