The Rise Of George Canning Author:Dorothy Marshall THE RISE OF GEORGE CANNING THE STUDY OF A POtlTICAL APPRENTICESHIP GEORGE CANNING by Sir T. Lawrence NJ C. THE RISE OF GEORGE CANNING BY DOROTHY MARSHALL, PH. D. Sometime Scholar ofGirton College Lecturer in History at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HAROLD TEMPERLEY, LITT. D., F. B. A. Master of P... more »eterhouse Professor of Modem History in the University of Cambridge WITH ILLUSTRATIONS LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO PREFACE THIS study of Canning as a young man is very largely based upon private papers hitherto unpublished and now in the possession of the Right Hon. the Earl of Harewood, who has very kindly given permission for me to use them for this purpose. For the years 1793-5 there is a very full journal which Canning wrote up every few days and sent in instalments to his uncle by marriage, the Rev. William Leigh. This, though presumably not quite so revealing as a private diary, gives a very full and unforced picture of his life from day to day. After 1800 his letters to his wife, which were absolutely unreserved and confidential, are particularly valuable for the light which they throw on his hopes and plans. The collection also contains a few letters to Lady Susan Ryder dealing with the period of Cannings courtship. All the quotations in the text, unless otherwise stated in the footnotes, come either from the journal or these letters. For the period before 1793 a series of letters written to his aunt, Hester Canning, and his cousin, Bessy Canning, though not so full as his later correspondence, help to fill in some gaps. These letters, which are now in the posses sion of Mrs. Western, who has most kindly allowed quotations to be made from them, are referred to in the footnotes as Western Letters. Additional information is also supplied by a collection of unprinted letters at the Public Record Office G. D. 29 8, written by Canning to Lord Granville Leveson Gower and not included in the volumes of his Private Correspondence edited by Castalia, Countess Granville in 1916. vi PREFACE Printed material dealing with Canning is comparatively plentiful. The early chapters of Dr. Temperleys Life of Canning are particularly useful in giving the main facts of his early life, and provided the starting-point for this more detailed study of the young Canning. I have tried, as far as possible, to base this biography on letters which Canning either wrote or received rather than on what has been written about him. This has been made easier by the fact that many of his letters have been included in printed collections of correspondence. Of these the most useful are the Private Correspondence of Granville Leveson Gower, referred to above, J. Bagots George Canning and his Friends, and G. Festings John HooMiam Frere and his Friends. A. G. Stapletons well-known George Canning and his Times contains interesting letters, but I have drawn as little as possible on this source, preferring to use less familiar material when it has been available. For the pre-Oxford period No, 39 of the Microcosm and the article Some Letters of George Canning, by the Rev. J. Raven, in the Anglo-Saxon Review vol. Ill, 1899, are useful, while J. Newtons pamphlet, The Early Days of George Canning, pro vides an authentic picture of Canning as an undergraduate. Stratford de Redcliffes Recollections of Canning in the Nineteenth Century Jan. 1880 gives another picture of Canning based on personal knowledge . Lord Malmesbury s Diaries and the Dropmore MSS. Hist. MSS. Com. cover the period of his first experience of office as Under-Secretary of State. E. D. Adams The Influence ofGrenville on Pitts Foreign Policy supplies a good picture of the diplomacy of these years. Other important letters are to be found in Stanhopes Miscellanies second edition and his Life of Pitt and in Pitt and Napoleon by Holland Rose...« less