CANNING

canning, george (1770-1827), british statesman, was born in london on the 11th of april 1770. the family was of english origin and had been settled at bishop's canynge in wiltshire. in 1618 a george canning, son of richard canning of foxcote in warwickshire, received a grant of the manor of garvagh in londonderry, ireland, from king james i. the father of the statesman, also named george, was the eldest son of mr stratford canning, of garvagh. he quarrelled with and was disowned by his family. he came to london and led a struggling life, partly in trade and partly in literature. in may 1768 he married mary annie costello, and he died on the 11th of april 1771, exactly one year after the birth of his son. mrs canning, who was left destitute, received no help from her husband's family, and went on the stage, where she was not successful. she married a dissolute and brutal actor of the name of reddish. her son owed his escape from the miseries of her household to another member of the company, moody, who wrote to mr stratford canning, a merchant in london and younger brother of the elder george canning. moody represented to mr stratford canning that the boy, although full of promise, was on the high road to the gallows under the evil influence of reddish. mr stratford canning exerted himself on behalf of his nephew. an estate of the value of l200 a year was settled on the boy, and he was sent in succession to a private school at hyde abbey near winchester, to eton in 1781, and to christchurch, oxford, in 1787. after leaving eton and before going to oxford, he was entered as a student at lincoln's inn. at eton he edited the school magazine, _the microcosm_, and at oxford he took the leading part in the formation of a debating society. he made many friends, and his reputation was already so high that sheridan referred to him in the house of commons as a rising hope of the whigs. according to lord holland, he had been noted at oxford as a furious jacobin and hater of the aristocracy. in 1792 he came to london to read for the bar. he had taken his b.a. in 1791 and proceeded m.a. on the 6th of july 1794. soon after coming to london he became acquainted with pitt in some uncertain way. the hatred of the aristocracy, for which lord holland says he was noted at oxford, would naturally deter an ambitious young man with his way to make in the world, and with no fixed principles, from attaching his fortune to the whigs. canning had the glaring examples of burke and sheridan himself to show him that the great "revolution families"--cavendishes, russells, bentincks--who controlled the whig party, would never allow any man, however able, who did not belong to their connexion, to rise to the first rank. he therefore took his place among the followers of pitt. it is, however, only fair to note that he always regarded pitt with strong personal affection, and that he may very naturally have been influenced, as multitudes of other englishmen were, by the rapid development of the french revolution from a reforming to an aggressive and conquering force. in a letter to his friend lord boringdon (john parker, afterwards earl of morley), dated the 13th of december 1792, he explicitly states that this was the case. enlightened self-interest was doubtless combined with honest conviction in ranking him among the followers of pitt. by the help of the prime minister he entered parliament for the borough of newtown in the isle of wight in july 1793. his maiden speech, on the subvention to the king of sardinia, was made on the 31st of january 1794. it is by some said to have been a failure, but he satisfied himself, and he soon established his place as the most brilliant speaker on the ministerial side. it may be most conveniently noted here, that his political patrons exerted themselves to provide for his private as well as his official prosperity. their favour helped him to make a lucrative marriage with miss joan scott, who had a fortune of l100,000, on the 8th of july 1800. the marriage was a very happy one, though the bulk of the fortune was worn away in the expenses of public and social life. mrs canning, who survived her husband for ten years, was created a viscountess in 1828. four children were born of the marriage--a son who died in his father's lifetime, and was lamented by him in very touching verse; another a captain in the navy, drowned at madeira in 1827; a third son, charles (q.v.), afterwards created earl canning; and a daughter harriet, who married the marquess of clanricarde in 1825. the public life of canning may be divided into four stages. from 1793 to 1801 he was the devoted follower of pitt, was in minor though important office, and was the wittiest of the defenders of the ministry in parliament and in the press. from 1801 to 1809 he was partly in opposition, partly in office, fighting for the foremost place. between 1809 and 1822 there was a period of comparative 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 general distrust. from 1822 till his death in 1827 he was the most powerful influence in english, and one of the most powerful in european, politics. in the spring of 1796 he was appointed under-secretary for the foreign office, and in the election of that year he was returned for wendover. he was also appointed receiver-general of the alienation office, a sinecure post which brought him l700 a year. his position as under-secretary brought him into close relations with pitt and the foreign secretary, lord grenville (q.v.). during the negotiations for peace at lille (1797), canning was actively concerned in the devices which were employed by pitt and grenville to keep the real character of the discussion secret from other members of the cabinet. canning had a taste for mystery and disguises, which he had shown at oxford, and which did much to gain him his unfortunate reputation for trickery. from the 20th of 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 _anti-jacobin_, a weekly paper started to ridicule the frothy philanthropic and eleutheromaniac rant of the french republicans, and to denounce their brutal rapacity and cruelty. but canning's position as under-secretary was not wholly pleasant to him. he disliked his immediate 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 india, and in 1800 joint paymaster of the forces, a post which he held till the retirement of pitt in 1801. during these years of subordinate activity canning had established his position as an orator and a wit. his oratory cannot be estimated with absolute confidence. speeches were then badly reported. the 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 dryden, whose prose is uniformly manly and simple, and though he had a keen eye for faults of taste in the 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 opinion of serious people, who could not believe that so jocose a politician had solid capacity. it exasperated opponents, some of whom, notably peter pindar (see wolcot, john), retaliated by brutal personalities. canning was constantly reminded that his mother was a strolling actress, and was accused of foisting his pauper family on the public funds. the accusation was perfectly untrue, but this style of political controversy was common, and was adopted by canning. he put himself on a level with peter pindar when he assailed pitt's successor addington (see sidmouth, viscount) on the ground that he was the son of a 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 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 bad odour as untrustworthy. he endeavoured to persuade lord hawkesbury (see