being worn out with labors, and embittered by the hostilities of his political enemies, who hounded him to death with the most cruel and unrelenting hatred.  His sensitive and proud nature could not stand before such unjust attacks and savage calumnies.  He rapidly sank, in the prime of his life and in the height of his fame.  Canning’s death in 1827 was a marked event in the reign of George IV.; it filled England with mourning, and never was grief for a departed statesman more sincere and profound.  He was buried with great pomp in Westminster Abbey.  The sculptor Chantry was intrusted with the execution of his statue,—­a memorial which he did not need, for his fame is imperishable.  The day after the funeral his wife was made a peeress, an annuity was granted to his sons, and every honor that it was possible for a grateful nation to bestow was lavished on his memory.

Canning left only L20,000,—­a less sum than he had received from his wife upon his marriage.  His domestic life was singularly happy.  He was also happy in the brilliant promises of his sons, one of whom became governor-general of India, and was created a peer for his services.  His only daughter married the Marquis of Clanricarde.  His children thus entered the ranks of the nobility,—­a distinction which he himself did not covet.  It was his chief ambition to rule the nation through the House of Commons.

Some authorities have regarded Canning as the greatest of English parliamentary orators; but his speeches to me are disappointing, although elaborate, argumentative, logical, and full of fancy and wit.  They were too rhetorical to suit the taste of Lord Brougham.  Rhetorical exhibitions, however brilliant, are not those which posterity most highly value, and lose their charm when the occasions which produced them have passed away.  Canning’s presence was commanding and dignified, his articulation delicate and precise, his voice clear and musical; while the curl of his lip and the glance of his eye would silence almost any antagonist.  In cabinet meetings he was habitually silent, having already made up his mind.  He could not gracefully bear contradiction, and made many enemies by his pride and sarcasm.  In private life he was courteous and gentlemanly, fond of society, but fonder of domestic life, pure in his moral character, devoted to his family,—­especially to his mother, whom he treated with extraordinary deference and affection.

The next subject of historical importance in the reign of George IV. was the perpetual agitation among the people growing out of their misery and discontent.  There were no great insurrections to overturn the throne, as in Spain and Italy and France; but there was a fierce demand for the removal of evils which were intolerable; and this was manifested in monster petitions to Parliament, in incendiary speeches like those made by “Orator Hunt” and other agitators, in such political tracts as Cobbett wrote and circulated