THE LATE LORD CANNING.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1718, 27 August 1862, Page 4

THE LATE LORD CANNING.

(From the "Time*,'' June 17.) Charles John Canning was born at Glocester Lodge, Brompton—a house now incorporated with the Kensington Museum — in 1812, —the third son of the celebrated George Canning. The most important fact connected with his early life is his education at Christ Church, Oxford. We have often had to record the glory of this College as the chief nursing mother of statesmen in our time. In the previous generation Trinity College, Cambridge, had this honour; but the race of" veterans whom she reared are now almost gone, Lord Lansdowne being one of the very few left, and Lord Palmerston being claimed by St. John's. Christ Churcb was the intellectual home of Peel, and the followers of Peel. Amongst the followers of Peel, indeed, we cannot count Sir George Lewis, bnt there remain Lord Stanhope, Mr. Gladstone, Lords Dalhousie, Canning, and Elgin. The last four were at College together; the last three graduated very nearly at the same time. They all obtained honours; but the two who were wholly Scotch were least high, while the two who were only half Scotch stood the highest. Lords Elgin and Dalbousi* were respectively first class and fourth class in classics; Mr. Gladstone, on the otlu:r hand, was a double first, while Lord Canning all but reached this position, for he was of ihe first class in cl.issics, and of the second in mathematics. Three of these have been successively lifted to one of the most splendid positions which a British subject can enjuv. Lord Dalhotisic was Governor-General of India form the bcginniiiL'of 1848; Lord Canning succeeded him early in 1856. Let us hope that Lord Elgin, upon whom the honour has fallen in the present year, will enjoy a happier fortune than that of either of his college frien'ls.

Lord Canning, then Mr, Canning (for the peerage which his father has earned was given in the first instance to his mother) entered upon public life in 1836, wt-en he appeared in the House of Commons as a member for Wnnvickshire. In the following year his mother died, and he went to the Upper House. When Sir Robert Peel came into power, in 184t, he was appointed Under-Secretary for Foreign affairs. He held this post till 1846. in spite of the inconvenience of having both the Secretary and Under-Secretary of the same department in the House of Lords. Of course. Lord Aberdeen could not he spared from the Foreign Office, and it may be imagined both that Lord Canning would feel anxious to distinguish himself iu the same political line as his father, and that Sir Robert Peel, in tender memory of the past, would be particularly ready to further the’ political aspirations of George Canning’s son. For a month or two, in the reconstructed Ministry of Sir Robert Peel, Lord Canning was Chief Commissioner of Woods and Forests; but in July, 1846, he resigned with his party, and, declining high office at the hands of Lord Derby, returned with the Coalition Ministry in 1853. In the Government of Lord Aberdeen, Lord Canning was Postmaster-General, and distinguished himself as far as possible in such a department, by his administrative capacity. He worked very hard, made many changes in the internal organization of the department, and set on foot the practice of submitting annually to Parliament a report of the work, and especially’the progress, achieved by the Post-office. He held the same appointment for a short time in Lord Palmerston’s Cabinet, but it became necessary, as the year 1855 wore on, to select a successor to Lord Dalhoiisie, and none seemed so fit to send out as his college friend Lord Canning. The peculiar fitness of this selection lay in the fact that the Governor-Generalship was the destined prize of which George Canning had been baulked. He had received the appointment, he was on the eve of starting for India, when Lord Castlercagh committed suicide, and the Foreign Office was left without a head. Canning, a comparatively poor man, gave up the chances of acquiring a fortune in the splendid post of Viceroy, in order to win a name for himself at home, and perhaps to roach the ship. He did win a name, and he did become First Minister, but he died in the effort. These were events which Lord Palmerston, as a Canningite, could not' forget, and Lord Canning, otherwise well qualified for the post, was appointed to succeed Lord Dalhousie. Ho began his reign in India on the first day of February, 1856, and the events of it are so recent, besides being, by their importance so well known, that it can scarcely bo necessary for us here and now to write their history. In the year after he assumed office the mutiny broke out, and he had to stem it as he could. Never lias any Governor-General of India had to go through so fierce a trial. He had a fearfhl load of responsibility; for a moment the Indian Empire seemed almost lost; in Calcutta the European inhabitants were in the greatest consternation, and Lord Canning was accused of weakness and softness, in dealing with the crisis. The Indian Empire was saved as by a miracle. It was saved by the firmness and resolution of a very small band of men, chief among whom ranks Lord ’Canning. For a time even the friends of the Governor General were in doubt as to the wisdom of his policy, but it is now confessed that iu that terrible emergency he displayed extraordinary courage, great administrative, and very great moral, qualities. There are few finer things in modern history than the fact 6f his quietly remaining at his post, utter receiving Lord Ellenborough’s outrageous despatch on the Government of Onde. As he had flOfero pf {op npif 1} (epjeney Uieipujvp?, '

he was now Government, and in the rooßt c «taS> a** 5 much seventy. After such a puffin in the knowledge that it wm task, the pacification of signed and let some Sw man uSjSF He held on. however. He knew tHS* stances resignation would be pubhc service, and that no one cSd7>sJi pacification so effectually as hiS\ l O where he was, and he has had theanfvj 6 India once more ha PP7 and conteSzK® make the revenue meet the ernen^ promise to rise from its decav andtnfl 8 ' life, living faced grappled with such enormous accomplished such wonderful came home, two months ago. for The repose which he sought he has SS Lord Canning, who was raised

We are suddenly called upon tows* i victim to the great strain of ous self-sacrifice by which honour k ! Empire maintained. Lord Canning only to die. After governing India tIL^ 1 a transfer of allegiance, • period rf? 118 ® developement, and almost a surviving many who had shared i near with a vigour which seemed would long be pointed at as the pat cnsis, he has only just lived toi2>‘<. his native soil. As the world counts case was a hard one. At political friends he had stayed out usual term. That year over, Lady SJw* health had given way to the climate; aaS°?- % seized with a strong longing for from the hills ofDarjeeliuf England. _ Her husband was to mer.t was detained up the countiy by offiliTH State ceremonies, and at last found soon appeared. Arriving in his own least the credit of having recruited hiSiu 4 « voyage, be hastened to his wife’s fSrH return to town, he found himself snffaZL 0 ® * and was unable to see even those friSs. earnestly desired to see, and who asSm® 1 * to see him. The stock of strength fiS** ' him through an unexampled success® T, 1 ®* 3 anxieties, and sorrows, was now exhaasJ ..T 9 ®’ not be at once recruited. He died yeS ia^ As his father just reached the goal and then, as if no longer sustained by ceased at once from the race and Wfiffiß | late Governor-General of India onlv fori• “* : home, which had been for some : This was the one thought in which - ; wealth State and all that menvi^fc merged, and thus it had been realized Lord Canning had scarcely arrived in Ins;. the mutiny overdrew every anticipationh e 3E I formed, and every intention he could fovewL. as to the policy of his government. D«irJ£ every other Governor-General, to hare pearefot time, and full of schemes for himself engaged in not one, but many wars, wiiiy, pale of his own government, and unable to aww« of his own palace without risk of meeting mZ even in his own attendants. All eyes werefoataS upon him, and everybody asked what bird Cm™ was doing, and whether he was equal to At this time, with the calmer and wider rjevniw all can take of that terrible crisis, men will not jA , rash men then did, whether a prompter fond ad have cut the knot quicker. The prevailing beSfm is that so great and deep a mass of disaftectioa eoaM only be cured by the slow and sure process of tienfc war, The affair was soon in the hands of Gatfo whom Lord Canning had to choose, to eneosaaie support, and to supply. Nor was he ever charged wifi a failure of these duties. He had the still more diScult task of combining humanity with a vip®, prosecution of the war, and of restraining the fasi® of men maddened with injuries, indignant at tmrbn, and smarting with losses. He did interfere wifi t strong hand between vengence and its victim!, mi* prevented the growth of bitter animosities ud,p. haps, endless retaliations. His timely interfemwi favour of those who laid down their arms, no dak contributed to the general submission, and the pram happy oblivion of offences. The war over, that followed the long and delicate process of paciiak To the distant spectator, and to those who tom the old maxim that a conquest should pay its ownpenses, Lord Canning appeared to deal lavishljvi means placed at his disposal. He forgave, teiuati and rewarded with more than imperial clmencjri generosity. But it is as easy to underrate the A culties of peace, as it had been to despair of a saccanl ending to the war. The result was peace, order, md loyalty. The loss of a European army by the vrastof a "little tact was due rather to the military amtorca than to Lord Canning. Then followed the gratis difficulty of all—the restoration of the Indian Snaas, without throwing excessive burdens on the wm industry and means, and without an entire steppe of public works. This great work has uow rat several most valuable lives, and taken all the heart and strength out of more. Every day we ask wto a the next victim, and who will go out to India to® one more name to the sad list. He must be aWi man who will undertake all the dudes of in Epps Chancellor of the Exchequer, with the aggravanon d , Indian politics and an Indian climate. In these toys, when talent competes for everything, thejughes^ the most responsible places are with difficulty 6M For Lord Canning’s successor we had to go to the be who had reunited discordant factions in Brin® America, and twice dictated peace to the Emperora China. ~4 ■ To die “in harness” is as death mbathe-,ni honoured and understood. The strain on the power is taken as the measure of the moral tow,® all men respect an energy too frame. But there is something saddem the dem a man to whom work, and hope, and become the very springs of life.i? n<3 by the impulse they supply. The ‘ ■ Canning’s government comprised several distinct dramas of action, the anxiety of . either extinguish life, or recoscitate The vast operation might well fill and feed * till all the hopes and fears, and every tbo#t ® feeling beyond the domestic sphere, the contemplation of a great Empire *obe of chaos, into life and order, When thv » the fire flags, the vision fails, the exhausted nature bears unwilling [ ectu ®®; ngtte strain. The swimmer reaches the shore, sand, and expires. Such a sight is for human nature, in its finer forms, and . impulses. It preaches to the oovrf oro fd* know the true nature of a generous am®®’ prizes it aims at. To do, to dare in the field or in the Council thing beyond the comprehension of Such instances as that which it is Wfl ndtbtsA record this day, raise the standard of duty® u of honour, till they assume heroic prop® fc is not made even for power or glorious success, or for bright nob . thing which this world can give. He ***o* thing higher and greater still, even ken. He is never so great as when n and dies, reaching at once his noma his present rest and his unending fam^ By this crowning instance of self to say England, may perceive "hat re the p tion of personal greatness and good go not merely the possession of powers m much less is it the indulgence of strong will. It is a steadfast deterauniw everything to public duty, and to Emp l ® charge of obligations once undertaken- he of the East is a prize that might weU from ® of ordinary men, as it had drawn * = Alexander; and inflamed successive coj the scourges of mankindv \Vhat RO rdifi®^ covetousness, for the highest enjoy s» sordid self-aggrandizement, in so ojjtT with so rich a patronage! India is *e * richest, and the brighest field of This, however, is not as a Canning jodia? regarded it. Let it be known Empire 0 ! subjects that oar great men lookMW th« Mogul simply as a post of honourable and self-denial. What prompts the at home to accept that high, sea ~ . more rational fonn of the spin „ n j D g io^ the devotee and the fanatic Lord a great name; he had a he * rt . * mind for any study or pursuit he He had no need to much less for fortune. But the schoel brought up, and in which he had toj honourable and patriotic exe beyond*^ work, and leave his mark, term of years. He had e \. bccS pcctcd>^j| lie sacrificed more, perhaps, thi Anibitifl ll^ did greater works than the F liac ifica, have suggested. He reconci c » P beWO r W, improved, the greatest Empi joctedil^ the influences of civilization. , g. and. the most terrible crisis of its ' could do no more, left an high feeling, and disarm every low oce,