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CANNING, THE BRILLIANT MAN.

features the bold and haughty dignity of Strafford. We cannot fancy in his eye the volumed depth of Richelieu's the volcanic flash of Mirabeau's — the offended majesty of Chatham's. Sketching him from our fancy, it would be as a few still living remember him, with a visage rather marked by humour and intelligence than by meditation or sternness; with something of the petulant mingling in its expression with the proud; with much of the playful overruling the profound. His nature, in short, exhibited more of the genial fancy and the quick irritability of the poet who captivates or inflames an audience, than of the inflexible will of the dictator who puts his foot on a nation's neck, or the fiery passions of the tribune who rouses a people against their oppressors.

Still, Mr. Canning, such as he was, will remain one of the most brilliant and striking personages in our historical annals. As a statesman, the latter passages of his life cannot be too deeply studied; as an orator, his speeches will always be models of their kind; and as a man, there was something so graceful, so fascinating, so spirited in his bearing, that even when we condemn his faults, we cannot avoid feeling affection for his memory, and a sympathetic admiration for his genius.

APPENDIX.

THERE is a circumstance connected with the sketch of

Mr. Canning which I am called upon to notice.

which has since then been but very

The original MS. slightly altered was completed twenty-six years ago, and the greatest part in print not very long afterwards. Before, however, the whole had been sent to the press, I was called away on diplomatic duty, and left the proof-sheets in the hands of Mr. Colburn and the printer's, Beaufort House; abandoning in my own mind the intention of ever publishing or completing the work. In fact, in the busy life of Spain it was forgotten. On my return to England, in 1848, I received a visit from Mr. Bell, then editor of the Atlas. He sat with me some time, but did not make to me any particular communication, and it was only some time afterwards that I conjectured the purport of his visit. I then by accident, it might have been in America, read his Life of Mr. Canning, and found it was undeniably based on my original sketch. Many anecdotes were in it that I had had from private sources of a particular description, some of which anecdotes I have now omitted. Whole passages were entirely the same in purport and almost in expression; in fact, there are parts, the one relating to the Treaty of Vienna and the partitions which then took place, for instance, which are almost verbally repeated. I did not

think it worth while to take notice of this; I was rather glad than otherwise that the labour, which I had considered thrown away, as far as any object of my own was concerned. had been useful in the composition of an able work by another; and I only now mention the facts I have been relating, to clear myself from any charge of plagiarism which might otherwise be reasonably made against me. A copy of the old proofs I still retain.

END OF VOL. II.

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