walk of life; and when her son-at that time the center of popular admiration wherever he moved -used to visit her there, it was his delight to walk out in company with these humble friends, and with them to receive his "salutations and greetings in the market-place." One recognizes a great man in such behavior.

It had always been an object of paramount anxiety with him to take his mother off the stage; and the first use he made of the first opportunity that presented itself was to carry that object into effect. This occurred in 1801, when, retiring from the office of Under Secretary of State, he was entitled to a pension of £500 a year, which, instead of appropriating it to his own use, he requested to have settled as a provision on his mother.‡

* There was a strange story circulated in the newspapers upward of fifty years ago, giving a romantic account of the way in which this result was brought about. According to this statement, Mrs. Hunn was then playing somewhere in Scotland, and Mr. Canning, happening accidentally to go into the theater, to his utter astonishment recognized his mother on the stage. The story ends, dramatically enough, by her immediate removal from the profession, and her independent settlement for life. It is unnecessary to say that the whole affair is pure invention.

Mr. Canning did not retire until 1801; but I am informed, on unquestionable authority, that the date of the first warrant, made payable to his mother, was in May, 1799.

For this act, one of the noblest of his life, Mr. Canning suffered almost daily martyrdom at the hands of his less scrupulous political adversaries, from Peter Pindar down to Hunt and Cobbett. The circumstances of his mother's history-her connection with the stage and the pension list-were perpetually recalled in a spirit of coarse and unmanly ridicule. But the only effect these lampoons produced, was to make Mr. Canning more than ever desirous of testifying his regard for her. Peter Pindar was so indiscriminate in his abuse, that his doggerel has long since rotted into oblivion. It had not enough of the salt of wit to preserve the corrupt mass from decomposition. He assailed every body--Dundas, Pitt, Rose, Jenkinson; spurned Canning's Latin, and affected to despise the learning of Gifford and Mathias. He makes Pitt pick the nation's pocket to pension fools and knaves:

"Gifford, that crooked babe of grace,

And Canning, too, shall be in place,
And get a pension for his mother."

D

It has been observed by a great authority, that the mothers of distinguished men have generally been women of more than ordinary intellectual power; and the remark will lose none of its force in reference to the mother of Mr. Canning. Indeed, were we not otherwise assured of the fact from direct sources, it would be impossible to contemplate his profound and touching devotion to her, without being led to conclude that the object of such unchanging attachment must have been possessed of rare and commanding qualities.

Mrs. Hunn was esteemed by the circle in whose society the latter part of her life was passed as a woman of great mental energy. This strength of character communicated itself to her aspect, and even to her utterance. Her conversation was ani

All this would have passed off well enough for mere party ribaldry, but that he sometimes overshot the mark with naked lies. Ex. gr.:

"I must have something, Canning cries,
And fastens on some rich mince pies;

As dexterous as the rest to rifle ;

Ecod! and he must something do

For mother and for sisters too,

So steals some syllabubs and trifle."

Mr. Canning had no sisters; and Mrs. Hunn's children, by her third marriage, were rather too young at that time (1801) to quarter on the public. Few men, possessed of such opportunities, ever made such little use of them for family aggrandizement. Peter, going on in the same strain, says, that "with sinecures to a large amount, squeezed from the vitals of the nation, this modest and generous youth could not afford to yield his poor mother, Mistress Hunn, alias Mistress Reddish, alias Mistress Canning, a pittance. No! the kingdom must be saddled with five hundred pounds a year for her support." The sinecures had no more existence than the sisters; and the kingdom was not saddled with the support of Mrs. Hunn; for, at her time of life, being then fifty-five, the transfer of the pension from a " youth" of thirty-one was clearly in favor of the public. It is a curious commentary on the Billingsgate patriotism of Dr. Walcot, that, after a life spent in casting obloquy upon public men for alleged venality, he is said to have been bought up in the end! "He dropped his pen," says the author of "All the Talents," ""while snatching at a pension."

mated and vigorous, and marked by a distinct originality of manner and a choice of topics fresh and striking, and out of the commonplace routine. Like most persons who derive their social advantages from a practical intercourse with the world, Mrs. Hunn was more distinguished by natural talents than mere accomplishments-by nervous individuality and good sense, rather than superficial refinement. To persons who were but slightly acquainted with her, the energy of her manner had something of an air of eccentricity. She retained traces of the beauty of her youth to the last.

The closing years of her life were spent in retirement at her house in Henrietta-street, Bath; where she died, after a lingering illness, in her eighty-first year, on the 27th of March, 1827. Her son paid his last visit to her sick-room on the 7th of the preceding January, the day after the Duke of York's funeral, where he caught the cold, which, acting on a frame shattered by anxiety, laid the foundation of his last fatal illness; and he, who was so attached to her while living, in five months followed her to the grave.

THE childhood of George Canning was passed under the inauspicious guardianship of Mr. Reddish, whose disorderly habits excluded the possibility of moral or intellectual training. The profligacy of his life communicated its reckless tone to his household, and even the material wants of his family were frequently neglected to feed his excesses elsewhere. Yet, amid these unpropitious circumstances, the talents of the child attracted notice; and Moody, the actor, who had constant opportunities of seeing him, became strongly interested in his behalf. Moody was a blunt, honest man, of rough bearing, but of the kindliest disposition; and foreseeing that the boy's ruin would be the inevitable consequence of the associations by which he was surrounded, he resolved to bring the matter at once under the notice of his uncle, Mr. Stratford Canning. The step was a bold one; for there had been no previous intercourse between the families, although the boy was then seven or eight years old. But it succeeded. Moody drew an indignant picture of the boy's situation; declared that he was on the highroad to the " gallows" (that was the word); dwelt upon the extraordinary promise he displayed; and warmly predicted that, if proper means were taken for bringing him forward in the world, he would one day become a great man. Mr. Stratford Canning was at first extremely unwilling to interfere; and it was not until the negotiation was taken up by other branches

of the family, owing to honest Moody's perseverance, that he ultimately consented to take charge of his nephew, upon condition that the intercourse with his mother's connections should be strictly abridged.

Having undertaken this responsibility, Mr. Stratford Canning discharged it faithfully. He was a member of the banking and mercantile firm of French, Burroughs, and Canning, at that time largely concerned in the Irish loans, and a strong Liberal in politics. At his house George Canning was introduced to Burke, Fox, General Fitzpatrick, and other leaders of the Whig party. Here, too, he first met Sheridan, but it was reserved for later years and other opportunities, to ripen into intimacy the acquaintance which was thus begun; for Mr. Stratford Canning died before his nephew was old enough to enter upon public life.* He had the satisfaction, however, of witnessing the dawn of his talents, and of placing him in the most favorable circumstances for the completion of his education. A small estate in Ireland had been set aside for that exclusive purpose, at the urgent solicitations of Mr. George Canning's grand-mother -so small, that it yielded nothing more than was barely sufficient to defray unavoidable expenses.t

* He died a short time before Mr. Canning left Eton.

+ This trifling annuity, producing about £200 a year, was drawn from Kilbrahan, county of Kilkenny, which forms part of the style of the Canning viscounty. A writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine" tells us that there are two accounts of the way in which this small estate came into Mr. Canning's possession. According to one version, his grand-father, when he cut off the entail, forgot to include this little property in levying the fine, so that on his decease it devolved upon his grand-son, as heir-at-law. According to the other account, the omission was intentional, the grand-father settling Kilbrahan in fee on his disinherited son for the purpose of more effectually barring him from any farther claims.("Gent. Mag.," vol. xcviii.) It is scarcely necessary to say that these statements, which so flatly contradict each other, are equally irreconcilable with facts.