and made Italy what it was before the French Revolution.  The most mischievous thing which the Holy Alliance had in view was interference in the internal affairs of all the Continental States, under the guise of religion.  England, under the leadership of Castlereagh, would have upheld this foreign interference of Russia, Prussia, and Austria; but Canning withdrew England from this intervention,—­a great service to his country and to civilization.  In fact, the great principle of his political life was non-intervention in the internal affairs of other nations.  Hence he refused to join the great Powers in re-seating the king of Spain on his throne, from which that monarch had been temporarily ejected by a popular insurrection.  But for him, the great Powers might have united with Spain to recover her lost possessions in South America.  To him the peace of the world at that critical period was mainly owing.  In one of his most famous speeches he closed with the oft-quoted sentence, “I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old.”

Canning, like Peel,—­and like Gladstone in our own time,—­grew more and more liberal as he advanced in years, in experience, and in power, although he never left the Tory ranks.  His commercial policy was identical with that of his friend Huskisson, which was that commerce flourished best when wholly unfettered by restrictions.  He held that protection, in the abstract, was unsound and unjust; and thus he opened the way for free-trade,—­the great boon which Sir Robert Peel gave to the nation under the teachings of Cobden.  He also was in favor of Catholic emancipation and the repeal of the Test Act, which the Duke of Wellington was compelled against his will ultimately to give to the nation.

At the head of all this array of brilliant statesmen stood the king, or in this case the regent, who was a man of very different character from most of the ministers who served him.

It was in January, 1811, that the Prince of Wales became regent in consequence of the insanity of his father, George III.; it was during the Peninsular War, when Wellington, then Sir Arthur Wellesley, was wearing out the French in Spain.  But the reign of this prince as regent is barren of great political movements.  There is scarcely anything to record but riots and discontent among the lower classes, and the incendiary speeches and writings of demagogues.  Measures of relief were proposed in Parliament, also for parliamentary reform and the removal of Catholic disabilities; but they were all alike opposed by the Tory government, and came to nothing.  Four years after the beginning of the regency saw the overthrow of Napoleon, and the nation was so wearied of war and all great political excitement that it had sunk to inglorious repose.  It was the period of reaction, of ultra conservatism, and hatred of progressive and revolutionary ideas, when such men as Cobbett and Hunt (Henry) were persecuted, fined, and imprisoned for their ideas.  Cobbett, the most popular writer of the day, was forced to fly to America.  Government was utterly intolerant of all political agitation, which was chiefly confined to men without social position.